Shattered Flames
by Kenadasaur
Summary: After Midnight Ice, Shattered Flames comes in with a bang! Tallia is a strong warrior, but nothing could prepare her to lose her best friend. With her crazy determination, she journeys to find her friend, only to uncover a mystery long forgotten.
1. Preface

Friends are everything. You may not realize it now, but they shape how you are. Your friends are a major part of you. Treat them right. True friends are hard to come by, so be there for them when they're in need. Support them through hard times, don't shatter the relationship.


	2. Chapter 1

I never knew my dad. At first it hurt my mom too much to talk about him. But all scares heal with time, and she's told me everything about him. He would be a great guy to know. I'm proud he's my dad. I just wish he wouldn't have died. After escaping death so many times, it's ironic he died after it was all over and done with. My mom says she sees a lot of him in me. Personally I think I'm more like her. She's a warrior, and hunter. So am I. I got my warrior strips when I was born. Orange. A mix of my mom's red and my dad's yellow. That's pretty cool.

My dad tamed and rode a sminal, so I guess he of passed that onto me. I can ride Kramor too. He defeated the wherloos just cause a crazy idea came to him. Because of him, we're free. No attacks since. He's someone I look up too. I just wanna make him proud. My name is Tallia, I'm seventeen. My mother's name is Cera, my father's was Estil. My best friend is Savanna. I cannot live without her. We've been friends since I beat her in a military training thing. Even though we have no more enemies, we still kept training for battle, just in case. Estil had helped that course come into action, and even after seventeen years, it was still in progress. All defels were skilled fighters. They would win in any attack, but word had spread fast about the wherloos defeat. They were feared.

I'm a deadly hunter, quick and quiet. Not as fast as my father though. People seemed to exaggerate his speed, but even my mom confirmed it. "He once beat me in a race where I rode on my daragot, and he was on foot." That was hardest to believe. Daragots were fast, that's impossible. I'm the fastest defel, but I'm maybe a quarter of his speed. Maybe one day I'll be faster than him. It was a long shot, but her mother had always said she could accomplish anything she tried hard enough. It seemed like a good saying, it obviously worked for her father. I didn't even want a daragot, I ride Kramor, since my mom didn't want to. Kramor seems to like me.

My mom said Estil was very short as well. I'm a bit taller than fourteen feet. Mom told me she was a lot like her father, always happy, crazy ideas, always running and training, and hardly ever sitting still. Apparently, around seventeen years ago, they had another power, where your tail color would indicate your mood. But a few weeks after vanishing the wherloos from the face of the planet, this power mysteriously disappeared in all the defels. He was always off somewhere exploring or on a journey like it was his destiny. He always believed he was special and bound to go far, strangely, I have this feeling too. Part of it is I want to make my parents proud, even if one is dead.

My mate is Carter. They had been mates for about two years now. My mom laughed when she heard and said: "I knew you guys would end up together. You guys acted like me and your father used to." Which creeped me out, I stayed away from her the rest of the day. My mom had a mate when she was eleven, she also had me then. A little early, don't you think? I don't see kids in my future, that would mess up my fighting. Mom stopped training after giving birth to me. Her strips still remained vibrate though. She's probably still an excellent fighter, even after all these years. Her other friends were Sierra, Luther and Kurt, who was Savanna's mate. Sierra had purple strips, Luther had none, Kurt had green, Carter had blue and Savanna had light pink.

Savanna had been the closest to me, helped me through hard times. Even though there were few, it still helped. Sierra's a close friend, too. They had only been friends for about two years now. Sierra was a major warrior, unlike Savanna. Savanna was more of a hangout with friends girl, rather than a warrior like me and Sierra. I'm a better fighter than Sierra, even though she trains hard everyday. I'm dangerous; there's not many who can beat me, that are my age, except Carter. It's one of the reasons that we're mates. Not many guys can put up with being beat by their mate in battle. So Carter was a good choice. He's funny, and he understands me even when I make no sense whatsoever. Plus he never underestimates me, and never hides anything from me, he tells me the straight truth. He's a bit taller than me too.

Savanna seemed to have hit the jackpot though. Kurt was insanely smart, beautiful, muscular, charming, kind and caring. He was skilled in battle, but couldn't quite beat me, yet. He's taller than me but not by much, one of the tallest defels. He always took care of Savanna, didn't let anyone harm her. He was like a love-sick pony. Savanna didn't seem to notice, but everyone else sure did. No one would have thought he would end up with Savanna, they were totally different. They thought he would end up with Sierra, the were a lot alike. But they were proved wrong, and Savanna and Kurt were perfect together. Nothing would come between them.


	3. Chapter 2

I crawled under a mossy, fallen tree. I was being chased. Using my speed from my father, I burst through a bush and continued running. I hurdled a stump, then a rock. The wind was blowing past me. I kicked a pile of leaves everywhere and sped up. My heartbeat was throbbing in the back of my head and my breath came in fast puffs. Time slowed, branches cracked. _They're gaining on me. _I lept onto a rock, jumped off and caught a tree branch with my strong hands. I swung with my momentum and released my grip, flying through the air at an intense speed. Landing on my shoulder and rolling, I snapped onto my feet. There were vines in front of me, with quicksand underneath. _They're closing in, I can feel it. Now or never._

I latched my hands onto a vine at the bottom and swung to the next, keeping my feet up. A few feet in, I stopped and climbed up one. Reaching the top, I swung to the next one. Vines were falling around me, like they had been cut. _Time's up! Pick up the pace! _I gained speed by lowering my height on the vine and increasing air time. Then the vine I was on snapped. I flipped around and shot my hands out to grab anything. I firmly attacked myself to a vine, almost popping my shoulder out of place, then continued racing across. My arms were burning. _No time for that! Hurry up! _The dreadful vines ended abruptly and I softly landed on one knee. But I hadn't lost them yet.

There were randomly spaced rocks in front of me. Carefully and quickly, I hoped over the rocks, then decided to run on top of them. Stupidly, I turned around, to find no one chasing me. _It's not over. _I made a two foot jump to the next rock and over jumped it. My feet slid to find a landing spot and I flew forward, landing on my face. My chin smashed my mouth together, and I tasted blood. My nose bled angrily, and my head pounded. _Don't stop! Get up! _I ordered. My hands flew down and I pushed myself away from the ground. I ran on the ground, flying over the rocks. They would catch me if I don't hurry. There was a large puddle in front that I would have to swim across. My nose stopped bleeding, but still hurt.

With a quick breath, I dived into the icy waters. It was mind-numbingly cold. My muscles would freeze if I didn't hurry. I was about three quarters across when I heard a quiet splash behind me. _You can lose em, go faster. You have it in you. _I clambered out, feeling soaked and heavy. _Just a little longer! _I sprinted with all I had left through the forest and into the meadow. _I won! They didn't get me. _

"How was it?" Merfalis questioned. "Hardest training course yet." I gasped, exhausted. The three defels that had been chasing me appeared seconds later. "Good job boys! You gave her a run for her money!" He laughed. The chasers looked more tired than her. "Beat 'cha again!" She teased. "You were the fastest yet. What was the hardest part?" Merfalis questioned. "The rocks, definitely. I wasn't sure what to do, so at first I was jumping over them, but that took too long, so I started running on top them. But then I slipped and landed on my face." I explained and everyone laughed. The whole military showed up to watch who would win the newest training course. "You better get practicing on those." He ordered. I nodded then walked away.


	4. Chapter 3

The rocks could wait til later. I was tired, but I wanted to find Sierra and Savanna. Sierra would want to hear about the course. I still felt like running, I hated walking. It was slow and time consuming. I found my friends in the crowd.

"So you won, eh?" Sierra laughed. A smile spread across my face. "Yeah, but it was hard. I smashed my face on the rocks."  
>"Hey! "I don't wanna hear about the course, it has to be a surprise!" Sierra hissed. "Sorry." I muttered. "You hit your face?" Savanna asked, concerned. She was so much like a mom at times, it was kind of weird. "Yeah. It hurt." I laughed. "Probably! There's still a bit of blood on your face." Savanna said with a hint of disgust. "Oh, do I look tough?" I laughed, posing. "Looking like a warrior!" Sierra giggled. I wiped my arm across my mouth, and found more blood than expected. "Hmm, must have been worse than I thought." She explained. "Sure you don't wanna be healed?" Wondered Savanna. "No, <em>mother. <em>Being healed is for wussies afraid of blood. Plus, it's not that bad, Mouth injuries always bleed the most." I said.

"Good job out there, babe." Congratulated Carter, walking up. "Thank you." I said, wiping off more blood. "I guess now would be a good time to say I was one of the chasers." He laughed. I was puzzled. "You were? Its weird I didn't see you."  
>"I'm just that sneaky." He laughed while picking me up and spinning me. "I beat you." I teased. "Yeah, well you're fast." Carter pointed out. "And you're a sore loser." Cut in Sierra. They all laughed. Savanna absent-mindedly turned the bracelet on her wrist. It was leaves woven into a pattern. She always wore it, her mother gave it to her when she got her strips.<p>

"So what do we do now?" Sierra signed. After a few minutes of deciding, they chose to hide an oddly colored rock that matched their strip color, and make someone find it. It had to be between the karminyurs pond and the lake.

I set off towards the lake to make the others think I was going that way, then after a few minutes, turned left and sprinted towards the pond, not wanting to be seen. There was a gap between two tree roots beside the trunk, and I stuck my rock there. They weren't allowed to bury them, but could cover them. I found a large leaf and set it over top, then scattered a few leaves around to make it seem less suspicious. For a good measure, I created a pile of leave near a different tree, making it obvious there was a rock there to throw them off. _Perfect._

I made a large half circle and raced back to the meadow. Just as she arrived, Savanna and Carter appeared as well. Only Sierra left, and she always took forever, always made hers well hidden, always trying to win. I would always end up finding it. They all stood in a circle, waiting for Sierra. "So, Savanna will find mine, I'll find Sierra's, Sierra will find Tallia's and Tallia will find Savanna's?" Carter suggested. "That works." I agreed. "Yeah, sounds good." Savanna threw in. Moments later, Sierra finally emerged. "About time." I called. Sierra just laughed and shook her head, while running towards the group.

"So, you'll be looking for Tallia's, and Carter will be looking for yours." Savanna explained to Sierra. She looked up at him. "Good luck." She bragged. "Meet here when you find it!" I informed, running into the bush. Her friends split off into different directions. Sierra, going to the lake. _Ha-ha. I'm a sneaky one, aren't I? _I laughed to myself. The trees were blurry, like normal. My friends told me that they didn't see a blur while running, it was strange. I stopped and stood as tall as I could. I could faintly smell where Savanna had been. It was a thing my mom taught me when I was little.

I closed my eyes and followed thee scent. I was a great tracker, but not many knew that. With my eyes closed, my smell increased and it was easier to follow scents. Savanna's scent was getting stronger now, I was close. I opened my eye again and found a small cave in front of me. _Oh, good spot, Savanna. __Very clever, but shouldn't underestimate people. _The scent was clearly coming from the cave, and I strolled into the darkness. Even with the sunlight, it was hard to see. My night vision was blurry. I stumbled around until I found the back of the cave, and check behind some rocks. It took a few minutes, but I figured I had found it. Just before leaving, another scent caught my interest.

It was so faint it would be extremely easy to miss all together. I inhaled again, but closer to the ground this time. It was a scent that I had never smelled before, clearly a defels. But I knew what everyone smelled like. Judging by the faintness, it had been a long time ago. This cave had been abandoned for quite some time. I inhaled again, more near the back wall for a good measure. Definitively never smelled before, but shockingly familiar. It smelled like home. This defel hadn't been here in My lifetime, but shortly before that. One idea pulsed in my mind, but seemed highly unlikely. _Did Estil stay in this cave before? _

I inhaled once again, then left the cave. The sunlight hit the rock and it was the correct one. Savanna's rock. I glanced back at the cave, then ran back to the meadow.

Upon arrival, I realized Carter had beat me. He saw me, smiled and tossed the rock into the air. "I win." He bragged. I swatted the wind in a 'whatever' gesture. "So where'd you find Sierra's rock?" I wondered. "In the lake, right by the shore. Almost missed it, but the sun hit it just right and it shone in my eyes." He laughed. "In the lake! That's Sierra for you." I giggled. "Yeah really. Where'd you find Savanna's?" Carter wondered. "In the back of a cave. I wouldn't have found it, but I had smelt that Savanna had been there earlier." I explained. "You _smelt _it? That's totally normal!" He mocked. I nodded. "Who hides their rock in a cave?" He laughed. "Apparently Savanna." I replied.

As if on cue, she appeared in the meadow, inspecting the blue stone. "Found it!" She hollered. "I can see that!" He yelled. "Where'd you find it?" I questioned, curious. "He hid it inside a pine cone!" Savanna screamed. "I would still be looking, but I bumped a tree, and the pine cone fell from the branch. It hurt more than it should have so I looked at it and found this." She explained, holding out the rock. I gave him a questioning look. He was clearly enjoying himself.

After another few minutes, Sierra still hadn't shown up. "Not like her to take this long, should we go and look for her?" I suggested. "She'll get mad." Savanna explained. "I don't wanna wait around all day for her, let her get mad." I joked. Carter shrugged and they walked over towards the forest.

They found Sierra in the spot where I hid it, but had not found it yet. She had even knocked over the pile of leaves. I had a smug look. Sierra was frustrated. "I've looked everywhere! You're cheating!" She accused. I shook my head, kicked out the leaf and picked up the rock. "Nope." I laughed. "What the hell! You're not supposed to show me!" She exploded. "Oh well." I replied. Sierra was fuming. The stone sparled in my hand.


	5. Chapter 4

That night they all settled down together. Savanna on my left, Carter on my right. They watched the stars for a while, not wanting to sleep yet. The light breeze was warm and relaxing. My fingers found Carter's and they interlocked.

"Ever wonder what's up there?" Savanna questioned, breaking the silence. Carter shrugged. "Nope, never thought about it." He replied clearly uninterested. "Well, my mother once told me that the stars are actually defels that have already died, making us never feel alone. I think my dad told her that once. I wonder where he is up there." I answered. "I never thought of it like that." Savanna sounded like she had no clue what to say. "What did you think they were?" Carter questioned. "I don't really know. I just knew they're there for a reason." Savanna confessed. "So, Tallia your dad's up there right? Would he be mad we're together like this?" He joked, holding up their interlocked fingers. You could always count on Carter to make a joke that if you didn't know him, would seem mean and jerk-like. But he was only after a good laugh. I giggled, taking no offense. After receiving a few hushes from others, they decided to fall asleep.

A loud, distant chirping sound awoke me. I looked over to see a clump of birds over by the trees, that wouldn't stop chirping. I rubbed a hand over my face. "Damn birds." I groaned tiredly. I appeared to be alone, my friends no where in sight. I lept up and trudged towards the forest.

The forest was alive with all kinds of creatures, from defels to bugs. Even though defels could eat insects, most chose not too. Some were annoying or to prickly, but I thought they tasted disgusting. The sun had been only up for around an hour, and it brightly shone though the trees. The grass was still a bit damp from the dew, not being dried from the rays yet. There was next to no breeze, so the forest stood still. "Savanna?" I called loudly. No response. Her stomach growled, reminding her that her friends were probably out eating.

I inhaled deeply. I could pick out a few scents. Dirt, dew, moss, leaves and derates. _Ah, there we go. _I hurried off in the direction of the delicious purple and black fruit. I rounded a corner and almost bumped into Kurt. "Oh, hey Kurt! Have you seen Savanna?" I asked. Kurt's eyes darted across the ground deep in thought. "No, I haven't. She must be out eating or something." He replied. _Did he get better looking overnight? _I thought, examining him. _Yes, definitively. Savanna's so lucky! But a lot of girls wanted Carter, but you got him. _"Alright, thanks. Have you seen Sierra or Carter?" I wondered. "I think I saw Sierra over by the vines, probably going to climb them. As for Carter, I think I saw him by the lake, but I'm not sure." Kurt smiled. _Oh my god, that makes him look even better! If you drool, Carter won't be happy. He's Savanna's. _I shook my head to clear the thought. "Thanks." I called, running past him. "Not a problem, Tallia!" He said, sounding a little too friendly.

I smiled and shook my head as I raced towards the vines. Sierra would have been training for a while now, since their was no actual training today. No matter how hard Sierra trained, she never seemed to be able to beat me. _It's like I inherited my strength. Well, both my parents are good warriors, that's probably why. _Just thinking about my parents made me speed up. With training, I got faster. It was barley noticeable, but I could go faster for a longer distance after a long hard day of sweat and sacrifice.

I arrived at the vines and cast her gaze skywards. Shielding my face from the blinding sun, I looked around for Sierra. But with no success, I decided to climb a vine and search around. Climbing and swinging on vines were easy, but after a while it burns deep in your shoulders and biceps. I felt like a monkey, flying through the air, hardly touching the vines. My own power gave me freedom. Cleared all the bad things from my mind. I hardly noticed when I crashed into another defel.

A flash of purple and black and I knew I found Sierra. _Oh, she's going to be angry. _The thing about Sierra was that she had a terrible temper. Most people thought she was a bitch. But if you really got to know her, she was a really cool person. She was loyal too. She would sick up for you, no matter what you did. Sierra was the most understood person. She knows about her temper and tries hard to control it.

"Oh hey, Sierra! I was looking for you." I laughed, while landing on her feet with a quiet thud. Sierra latched onto a vine and slid to the ground. "Looks like you found me." She said, sounding a tad bit annoyed. "Ha-ha. Sorry I didn't see you, too wrapped in my thoughts, I guess." I apologized. Sierra raised a confused eyebrow. "No time to be dreaming, save that for night time." Sierra teased. "Anyways, have you seen Savanna?" I questioned. "What? I'm not good enough?" She laughed. "No, I haven't seen her today, sorry. Been training, which I should get back to." She hinted. I nodded. "Alright, thanks anyways. Go train." I instructed. "See ya later." Sierra called, racing up the vine. I watched her go, and within seconds, she was gone.

_It's not like Savanna to just wonder off. Something's wrong. Where could she be? _I signed in frustration. _Sometimes she likes to talk to the karminyurs, check there. _

She wasn't there either. I couldn't shake the feelings that something bad had happened. After searching around for too long, I decided to go back to the meadow. _You have other friends to hang out with. _When I passed the final trees, I spotted Carter and Kurt, and decided to go talk to them. They were well over to her right and a while away, so they didn't see me. I walked over a warm part of the grass and realized this is where they slept last night. Just before I continued walking, something caught my eye. Savanna's fingers had ripped out the grass and left a trail of mud, as if she had been dragged. I followed the trail until it disappeared a few feet later. _None of my friends would do this as a joke to me, or to scare me. No one would. _The pieces started to slowly fall together in my head. Savanna had been kidnapped.


	6. Chapter 5

The news hit me like a bus. I could never imagine like without Savanna. Savanna helped my through so much. It felt as if she was in a dream. Nothing seemed real. All a lie. All fake. I slowly bent to my knees and fell onto my butt. Tears clouded my vision. _How could this be happening? _The air felt thick, unable to be inhaled. I found myself coughing, trying to breathe.

_Stop! Stop it Tallia! You are stronger than this. She's not dead, she's gone. Out of everyone here, you know you can find her. It's who you are. A good friend comes to the aid of another. She needs you now. What are you gonna do about it? Get help, make a plan. You know you can find her. She's out there. Your speed will help. All your training will pay off now. _The air began to thin out. I gulped in breaths. My vision cleared. _You are not one to cry. You are strong. You are invincible and you, Tallia, will find Savanna._

My strength returned, and I stood up tall and proud. I saw Kurt glance over my way, and wave me over. I reluctantly followed, deciding whether to tell them or not. _Not Kurt, it'll hurt him too much. Maybe if you can pull Carter off to the side, but tell Sierra. Maybe Luther if you see him. _

"Could you please tell Carter here, that our meadow is bigger than the lake?" Kurt asked, showing they were having an argument. "No! Clearly the lake is bigger than this place!" Carter defended, throwing out his arms, gesturing to the meadow. "Tallia?" Kurt questioned. I was puzzled, they were fairly close to size, I had never really thought about it. "I'd have to say the lake is bigger, but I could be wrong. Why don't you boys go check?" I suggested, not wanting to be brought into this. "Yeah, come on." Carter agreed. I was about to go find Sierra, when Kurt grabbed my wrist and led her to the lake. _Looks like I'm in this anyways, _I signed inwardly.

After an hour of bickering, I made them agree it was the same size. When they finally let me go, I raced off to find Sierra, feeling like I was racing the clock. I found Sierra still at the vines. "Don't you ever get tired of training?" I mocked. "No. And one day I'll will beat you, Tallia. Then you'll train all the time!" She called down, while flying across the vines. "Well take a break, I need to talk to you." I said. "Can't you see I'm busy?" Sierra snapped. "Sierra! Get down here! Now! Take a break from your damn training!" I screamed forcefully. This caused birds to fly away and Sierra to stop dead. Finally, she began to slide down her vine. She approached me.

"Okay, so what's the big deal?" Sierra grumbled. "I think Savanna's been kidnapped." I started, slowly. Hearing this changed Sierra's expression very quickly. "You _think_?" She wondered. "Yeah. I can't find her anywhere and when I went back into the meadow, I found where she slept and her fingernails had left drag marks, like she was drug out of the meadow, forced." I explained. Sierra's eyes were wide. "Who'd you tell?"  
>"No one yet. I was about to tell Carter, but he was with Kurt. And if Kurt knew, then he would be crushed. I haven't seen Merfalis around either."<br>"Yeah, I wouldn't tell Kurt. You should tell your mom. She's good at that stuff." Sierra advised. The idea had never came to me. "Thanks, Sierra!" I called, as I turned to leave, Sierra grabbed my wrist. I turned back around and Sierra looked me dead in the eyes. "I'm coming with you. Don't worry, we'll find her."

I nodded, grateful. Together, they took off towards the lake. That's normally where mom would hang out, looking over the water, as if searching for something. I slowed my pace to Sierra's. Sierra was one of the fastest defels, but I was quite faster. In about ten minutes, they crashed onto the sand.

My mom looked at them, from about fifty yards to her left. Her arms were folded around on leg, the other was spread out all the way. She looked strong and powerful, with red lines dashing out everywhere. Her eyes still held a terrifying glow. You could see pieces of her in me, she said I look a bit like my father too.

Mom smiled. "Hi, honey." She greeted. I rushed to her side. "Mom, we need your help." Was all I said. The longing in my voice made Mom stand up. She was a few inches taller than her daughter. "What is it?" She asked, concerned. I took a breath. "Savanna's been kidnapped. It must have happened late last night or early this morning. There's claw marks from where she slept, showing she was dragged. She could be anywhere! We have to find her." I explained in one breath, quick and urgent. Mom seemed to slip out of her relaxed state and turned serious. She nodded. "Did you tell Merfalis?" Mom wondered. "Haven't seen him."  
>"Oh, well your first course of action should be consulting him. He could send out search parties. I have an idea of where he might be. Follow me." She instructed, running into the woods.<p>

Her speed surprised me. I always thought of her as slow, but here she was, running faster than Sierra.

Instead of going to the meadow like I assumed she would, Mom stayed on the right side. Then ended up on a trail and up a head, I saw a hill. _Where are we going? _I had never been in this part of the forest. They slowed to a walk. "Merfalis has a war group he plans with." Mom explained quietly while climbing the hill. I was afraid of what was on the other side. Weird creatures, broken, scarred defels, who knows? I held my breath while walking over the top.

Surprisingly, they were all able bodied defels. They had a grey-ish tint to their fur to show their age, but all of them had their strips. They were standing in a circle, talking quietly. Mom stopped at the top of the hill. "People aren't really supposed to know about this group, nevertheless know the location." She whispered. "Then how do you know?" I questioned. "Merfalis brought Estil here once. This is where he got the idea to attack the wherloos." Mom explained. Everyone knew about that. People were still telling stories about what happened. Whenever someone would try to bring it up with me, I would cover my ears and run away. I once over heard that one slit his throat and my mom had to save him. I ran to her crying after that.

After summoning my courage one day, I got my mom to tell me the story. He only told Merfalis at first, then Murawl who called an assembly and explained it. Murawl had been the leader so long it was a wonder how he wasn't dead yet. It was chaos, bit after a week or so of training, they set out after the wherloos. Wherloos were destructive, deadly creatures that would always attack the kill defels. They even destroyed this fallen tree that gave the defels healing powers, which still ran in their blood. Many got cuts, Estil had to heal Kramor after her wing was cut open. A wherloo had cut open his abdomen and he passed out from blood loss. Mom came and saved him. Then, when all but one were killed, Estil went after it. It grabbed his throat and flew high out of reach. Once Estil went unconscious, it dropped him. I was balling by this point. Mom caught him, he had no pulse. Mom laughed with the next sentence: "I was so enraged I got on Kramor for the first time, and killed the last wherloos to ever live. But I made sure he suffered." I didn't want to hear this story, it was worse than the ones other kids told. Kramor had saved him some how, although no one understands it.

The group didn't notice their presence yet. "Merfalis! We gotta talk to you!" Mom called in a weird voice, sounding angry. The council glanced up in annoyance, then Merfalis approached them. Most of the group looked like they should have died years ago, including Merfalis who had medium-dark grey hair instead of black. I heard that he had been military leader for over thirty years now. Still, his strips were as bright as anyone else's.

"Can this wait?" He hissed, wanting them to hurry. "I don't think so. Unless you wanna hear about the kidnapped girl later, while her life could be in danger!" Mom said coolly, while crossing her arms like she did when she was mad. Merfalis turned his complete attention to them. "What? Someone's been kidnapped?" He questioned, glancing at Sierra and me. "Savanna." I informed. Merfalis took this into thought. "You're sure?" He wondered. "What if she's just lost?" Merfalis questioned. "She's not lost." Sierra hissed coldly. "Do you think of us as that stupid? To report someone missing when they're lost? No, she's been stolen. Savanna isn't the type to wander alone in the forest. And I slept by her last night and she was gone this morning. They were drag marks beside me, she was reaching for help. I asked around, no one has seen her." I snapped. "Plus, I uh.." Sierra was hesitant. "I seen a weird footprint today, sort of near the meadow. I've never seen it before, like it didn't belong here. It had five long toes, and the foot was like an oval shape." She described, looking down. I looked at her. _Why didn't you tell me!_ Merfalis rubbed his chin. "Alright, I need to get back to my meeting, come join us. We'll talk about sending search parties.


	7. Chapter 6

They would send out three search parties to take different sections. They were to come back before dark. Sierra was instructed to draw out the print before they left. I glanced at my mom who seemed scared, weak and deep in thought all at the same time. _Probably worried about Savanna. _It was late morning when they were dismissed. Merfalis sent a messenger to explain the predicament to Murawl while he led a search party and got the other two rolling. "I want to come!" I screamed. "No, we need you here just in cause she comes back. Plus you're not in the military, you just train." Merfalis explained. _What a terrible excuse, could have just said no. I probably know the woods better than half of them. _Sierra decided to stop training for the rest of the day, which didn't happen often. Mom went off somewhere without saying a word. I didn't feel like talking to Carter or Kurt, they're both too happy. Kurt should probably know. Savanna _is_ his mate after all. _Just pull him away from Carter if they're still together. Explain it to Carter later._

First placed I checked was the meadow. It took a while to see if they were there, since most of the defels lay around after lunch. But they weren't there. _Are they still at the lake? _

Yes, they were. They must have decided to go swimming because she found them paddling along. "Tallia come in the water's _magical!_" Kurt called in a girl voice. But Kurt and Carter were already walking onto the shore. "Oh, probably. List, Kurt I have-" I was cut off by the lifting me up. I raised an eyebrow, then the boys charged into the water and dumped me in. I love water, but was not in the mood for their games. "Come on babe, loosen up. You're so tense!" Carter laughed, bringing me into a hug. For a moment, the craziness of the day vanished, but when he released her is came crashing back.

"I have to talk to Kurt." I began. Carter gave an unhappy, questioning look. "It's about Savanna." I explained, catching their expressions. "Oh. Come get he when you're done?" Carter asked, trudging to shore. "Yeah." I replied.

"So, what about Savanna?" Kurt questioned lightly, while floating on his back in circles. "Well, you know how I was looking for her this morning?" He nodded. "I still haven't found her." This made him sit up. "Really?" He sunk neck deep into the water. I nodded, having no idea how to put this. "The thing is, I don't think we'll find her; not for a while anyways." I hinted, hoping he would clue in. His blank expression was my answer. I signed. "She's missing Kurt. Savanna has been kidnapped." I explained. It took a moment for him to respond, then he looked like he got sucker-punched. "What?" He managed to choke out. "Yeah, they have search parties out right now." Kurt looked shocked, scared and sad. Tears collected in his eyes and threatened to fall. He blinked them away quickly. Kurt jumped up and grabbed my arms. "They have to find her!" He freaked. "Kurt. It's going to be okay. They'll find her. She couldn't have gone far." I attempted to comfort him. It didn't work.

"Tallia, I need her. She can't be gone! Maybe she's just out for a walk?" He hoped. "All day? Plus we found drag marks and strange tracks. That sounds like a weird walk to me." I explained. He tried to sink under water but instead I dragged him to shore. "Don't move." I instructed. Carter was a bit down the beach and in the trees a little. I raced up to him. He saw my expression and stood up. "What's wrong?"  
>"Long story short, Savanna's been kidnapped. told Kurt. he's flipping out. They have search parties out there. Can you calm him down?" I replied between gaps of air. The news didn't hit him as hard as anyone else, but he quickly walked to Kurt's side. I sat from a distance and watched.<p>

Kurt was staring over the lake, his arms wrapped around his knees, as if he was holding himself together. Carter reached out and touched his shoulder. Kurt looked up at him with teary eyes. He said something I was too far away to hear. Carter nodded his head. He bent to his knees and explained something to him. Kurt looked down and tried to take it in, then asked another question. Carter was moving his hands around as if they would help the explanation. This seemed to calm him down a little. Kurt took a deep breath. I heard the last thing Carter said. "They're going to find her." This seemed to give Kurt give. He shook his head, signalling that he was done with this conversation. He said something that looked like "Thanks, man." Then Carter walked back over to me.

"Well, I seemed to calm him down a bit, but it's gonna take him sometime to get used to it." He explained. "Of course, Savanna was his life. But thanks, I probably wouldn't have been able to do that. I don't have a way with words like you do." It was true, Carter had a way with words. He could change your mind with a few sentences. He always knew what to say, and that was one of the things that I liked best about him. Once, I was really sad over the loss of my father, and along comes Carter, who held me what seemed like hours, and gave me many reasons to be happy. He calmed me down, reassuring me that it would be fine, life's not impossible without a dad, plus everyone thought my mom was awesome. That was before they were mates, but something definitively clicked that night, that changed how I felt about him. How he would always be there for me.

Carter decided to keep an eye on Kurt and I wanted to help, but I was needed in the meadow, in case a party or Savanna returned. Their lips touched, and they departed in their separate ways.

Sierra draped lazily around the meadow. How wrong it felt to sit around, not training or doing anything! _Savanna should hurry up and be found so I can go train. You gotta be the best of the best! _Tallia had went to be the bad news bear. _That'll turn out great. _She walked in a slow circle around the meadow, not really sure what to do with herself. She spotted a tall tree a little ways out and decided to climb it. Sierra latched onto the bottom branches and thrust herself upwards, grabbing branches along the way and pushing her feet against the bark. She was a good climber since she had lots of strength, but_ still_ Tallia was better. _Has to be her dad's speed. So not fair, that should have been me! One day. One day. _When she reached the top, she could see for miles, besides a few taller trees in the way. If she looked hard enough, she could barley make out the mountains, which were miles and miles away. Sierra could also see almost everything in the meadow, which seemed quite empty, with most of the military gone looking for Savanna.

Cera's red strips were so bright, that was all Sierra could focus on. She seemed paralyzed, or zoned out because she was standing straight, unmoving and staring at one spot. Possibly there was a bug, or something, but she looked deep in thought. Silently, Sierra slid slowly down the tree. She started walking towards Tallia's mom to see what was wrong. When she was close, she saw the claw marks of Savanna's attempt to rid of the beast that took her. Sierra was behind Cera. Cera wasn't looking at the marks, but past it, at the print from earlier that the creatures left. She looked scared and sad, like she had seen these before. She took a slow step in towards it, then leaned in closer to it. She stood like this for a moment, and before Sierra reached her, she freaked out and took off sprinting towards the bush at an impossible speed._ Her too? What was that all about? _

Curiously, she walked up to the foot print and touched it. "I've never seen this before. How would she know about it?" She whispered. _Maybe it's a wherloo track? Apparently they were wiped out, so maybe it's from her past. But wouldn't Merfalis mention that, or even look the slightest surprised at it's presence? I get that being military leader means show no emotion, but wouldn't the shock of it crack the mask? I don't know much about wherloos, I wouldn't ask Cera about it, she'll flip again. Ask Merfalis when he gets back? _


	8. Chapter 7

When I saw the search party arrive in the meadow, I couldn't stop myself from running straight at them, demanding answers. They hadn't seen her. I had convinced myself they would find her, but the news sent these hopes crashing down. _It's only been a day, they can still find her. She can't be that far. _Sierra was behind me in a flash. "They find her?" The expression on my face must have gave her the answer. "Oh." They turned away from the group and walked into the center of the meadow. "You know that's only one search party, there's still two more out there. The kidnappers could cover a lot of ground in one day, but so can we. Savanna's not gone far. Come on, you really think she'd leave you and Kurt that easy? She's probably trying her hardest to escape. Even if she doesn't train like me or you, she's still a tough cookie. She'll make it through." Sierra explained. That was probably the most I had ever heard her say in one speech. This calmed me down a bit, Carter's words would have been better, but Savanna was still out there. _She'll come home, she has to_.

It was nearly sunset. Yet another party returned with the same results. I started to get angry at them, but it wasn't there fault. If I hadn't been sitting around all day, then maybe I wouldn't be so judgement, but I had so I was itching to get out there and look myself.

The last party, Merfalis' returned moment later. It brought her comfort that he spent extra time searching. He caught my hopeful gaze and shook his head miserably. Even though he hardly knew Savanna, he knew me very well and knew how much Savanna meant to me. His party departed to random areas and Merfalis approached them. "Listen to me, Tallia." He began, grabbing her arms and staring her in the eyes. "We _will _find her. We won't stop searching okay? So get some rest! It's taken care of." He guaranteed. I nodded. "Thanks." I whispered. He let go, and went to walk away. Sierra stopped him. "Wait! That print I found today, was it a wherloos?" Sierra asked suddenly. I looked at her weirdly. _They're dead! Aren't they? _Merfalis laughed. "No, I've never seen these tracks in my whole life. I'm thinking they're out of Draytor, either North, South, or West from here. We've seen the East already. Wherloos are died out, Cera killed the last one. What made you think that?" He wondered. Sierra looked hesitant. "Uh, well today I saw Tallia's mom staring at it, just wondering if it were a wherloo print." She said simply, clearly hiding something.

I gave her a questioning look and she shrugged it off. "Oh, alright. Well get some sleep girls." He said, walking off.

"What was that about?" I asked when Merfalis was gone. They started walking. "It's true, she was staring at it, but just the way she did, it was like it was from her past. Just like deja vu. And she was scared of it. My first guess was a wherloo because I wouldn't know what it's foot print looked like." She explained. "Oh, okay." I replied. "But we get this, I was gonna go talk to her, see what was wrong, you know? But she totally freaked out, like screamed and ran like it was gonna attack her." Sierra added. "What the hell?"  
>"That's what I said! Your mom's weird."<br>"Ha-ha. Gee thanks."  
>"You know what I mean." Sierra laughed. "Yeah, do you think I should talk to her about it?" I wondered. "Up to you, but it may remind her about it, but also by the look on her face, I don't think she's gonna forget it anyways. Do it, I want answers." Sierra instructed.<p>

I took this into thought, and ventured out to see Mom. _Let's get to the bottom of this. _I looked around everywhere, still couldn't find her. It was almost dark enough for night vision, but it doesn't happen unless the sun is down, or it's pitch black. For some reason, she ended up at the karminyurs pond, and that was where Mom was. She was laying, staring straight down into her reflection. I didn't see me arrive, but most likely heard me.

"April would always talk about this place at night, how magical it was. It lost most of it's glow, but it's still faintly noticeable. Things fade over time. Too bad memories don't." April had been her childhood friends, died when she was eleven, when the wherloos attacked. That event brought Estil enough motivation to attack them. That changed everyone's lives. Now, if they were never attacked, they could live safely, because of him. Even now, I could barley make out a dim light coming from the pond. "You used to be able to see this light from over forty feet into the forest." Mom smiled and shook her head. She was in that mood again, where she would say the randomest things, but if you paid attention, they made sense. "Those memories that I blocked out so long ago, they're back, Tallia. Now I don't know what to do, what will happen." She sniffled. I could see tears in her eyes. "What memories Mom? What are you talking about?" I wondered. Mom finally looked up at me. "Memories from my past, before you were born." She whispered.

"Ant that, that footprint cause them to come back? What kind of track is that?" I asked. "Something triggered it. I can't remember where I saw it, but they are dangerous. I hate to tell you kiddo, but your friend's in real danger right now. Tallia, she needs to be saved soon. You know you're the one to do it too. Look into your heart, you can find her. I don't know the animal, but I know I haven't seen the whole body, just the claws. Since I blocked everything out, it's still cloudy, but hopefully I'll still remember it sometime. Go to bed." Mom explained, never the one to keep anything from me. Other parents keep things, but in the long run, that doesn't help. Better to tell than to keep it to yourself. "It's gonna be okay Mom." I whispered, walking towards the meadow. It was almost pitch black now, my night vision coming on.

_She's in danger, I knew that all along, everyone should. _But my mom made it seem worse than that._These things have been making spaced appearances, probably to avoid suspicion. They've probably been around here since before my mom could remember. Something is wrong here. She's so scared, it makes it seem they did something to her._ A sudden thought crossed my mind. _Did they kidnap her too, when she was little? If they've been taking people, that means they're planning something against the defels. Maybe me. I've got to stop them! _

With this realization brought fear. Still, it was a long day and I fell asleep easily beside Carter. He would protect me over night.


	9. Chapter 8

_Today's gonna be hectic, _I signed while stretching. I was planning to leave after breakfast to get a good head start. I over heard from Merfalis that they were searching the south-east side today, which was perfect because I was going north-west. That's where I believe they went, plus that's where the drag marks lead. Most defels were up by now, so I went to tell Sierra, who wouldn't want to come because she would train instead, plus she would know I don't want anyone else to come. _I want to find her on my own. _

Sierra was just waking when I found her and explained it. "I knew you couldn't just sit here and wait. I'd love to come, but I really gotta train since I took the day off yesterday. Happy trails!" Sierra laughed. "Kinda thought so." I joked. "Yeah. You bring her home safe." Sierra scratched her arm. "I will." I promised. Her eyes narrowed off into the distance. "What on Transor is he doing!" She hissed. "What?" I wondered, spinning around. At first, I didn't see what Sierra was angry about, then I saw it too. Kurt was kissing another girl.

Without another word, they both charged towards him. Sierra grabbed him and ripped the two apart. For a good measure, she also punched him square in the jaw, then let go. The girl was screaming at us, but she's not important. I didn't even know her. "What the hell are you guys doing?" Kurt spit out some blood. Sierra had a hard hit. "Uh, what the hell do you think _you're _doing?" Sierra repeated, yelling in his face. He gave her a stare. "What about Savanna?" I screeched. His gaze turned to me. "So? She's gone! Why can't I just get a new mate without everyone spazzing?" He grumbled. "Well maybe because you have one! You're not supposed to! She's missing, not dead! If I see you with any other girls, I will personally beat you into the ground." I snapped. "That goes for you to, missy. If you do so much as touch him, you're going to be in a world of hurt." Sierra hissed, shoving her down. Just as Kurt went to get up, I planted a foot on his chest and sent him crashing back down to the ground. "You know better." I whispered.

Word got out about him fast, and soon enough, everyone hated him. His parents were disappointed. "Great way to leave, hey?" I laughed, walking towards the treeline. "Oh, and make sure you tell Carter in about an hour about what's going on, so he won't come after me." I instructed. "Will do. Bring her home, Tallia." Was all she said, then ran off to train. I stepped into the forest.

There were no signs of Savanna's kidnap out here, which gave me almost nothing to go on. But I believed I could find her, so I would. _If I were a kidnapper, I would take the victim far away. They wouldn't be able to track her down and they'd give up. Oh, no. They must have taken her out of Draytor. _I started into a slow jogging pace, wanting to cover a lot of ground before night fall. I was not planning on coming back today. Plus, if I ran, there would be more space between me and the meadow, in case Carter decided to follow me, which he probably would.

After a few hours of jogging with no results, my hopes started dying with each step. Exhausted, I took a long drink from a large river, and rested against a tree in the shade. _How hard it would be to be a search party! When you come back with nothing and have to break the bad news to people you don't even know! You have to keep going, Tallia. You're going to find Savanna even if it takes a few weeks. She's been gone for a day and a half, they could have taken her far. They have to stop sometime, and that's when you'll find her. _I stood up and broke into a faster jog.

Splashing across the river, I found a large fish and some hablees that would do nicely for lunch. Defels didn't normally eat meat, but they did at times. I walked and ate, wanting to cover ground. A few times I slipped with the current when a rock gave way or I didn't have a great footing. It was a strong current, sometimes took me minutes to get back up. After what seemed like an hour, I was across. I shook myself dry and started running through the forest. There were no trails here, just dense trees, branches that blocked my path. I ducked and dived but that was killing my energy. Since I was running, any collision would hurt, and I ended up with a bleeding cut across my chest, and smaller numerous ones on my legs and arms. Gingerly, I patted my face. All clear except for a small cut, about two inches wide over my right cheek bone. It wasn't bleeding, so I only concentrated on healing the bleeding ones.

This time, I walked through the brush, only getting the littlest scraps. It seemed to go on forever, and finally I was fed up with the area, and wanted to get past it. _Maybe I could crawl? _Nope. I got on me hands and knees and found branches everywhere, and sharp rocks. "Dammit!" I screaming in frustration. The birds flew from nearby trees. _Trees! That's it! _I bounded to the nearest one and hauled myself up the trunk. Easily pushing off with my legs, I practically flew. Reaching near the top and the branches were drooping with my weight, I glanced around at the world. I was still in Draytor, probably would be overnight. The sun was already threatening to set, just a sliver left. With the defels glowing eyes, we could see in the dark, but not all that well. I didn't like it because it blurred my senses. I had less than half an hour of light left. I really did not want to go back to the ground, so I carefully calculated the distance to the next tree and jumped across.

The bark was dead here, and slipped out with my claws. My feet slid out from under me and I fell. When me back came in contact with the branch, it snapped and we both fell. This tree was shorter than the other one, and the branches were thinner and supporting. I crashed earthwards through the thicket. It hurt so much, that when I would snap another tree limb, I wasn't sure if the crack came from me or the tree. Finally, I had the will to latch my fingers onto a branch, swing around and land on top. This one was sturdy. I croutced, catching my breath. Looking down, I realized I was a mere ten yards from the ground. My fall must have woken the whole forest. I wanted to move, but couldn't bring myself to. Everything hurt. Especially my back, which had a fiery pain screeching across, threatening to swallow me whole.

Still, I made myself carefully step to the next tree, and climb upwards. The screaming pain in my left shoulder told me it must be fractured or pulled. But I climbed on, wanting to get away from possible ground threats. Nearing the middle, I paused for a moment, wincing at my arm, then attempted to heal it. It took a while, but I finally felt better, in my shoulder anyways. Everything else could wait til morning. I was extremely tired from the day, and just as the final line of sun went down, I plunged into sleep.

The temperature dropped that night and I woke up shivering. At first, I felt around for Carter to warm me, but then remembered where I was. _It's never been this cold in the meadow, must get colder the farther north I go. _The only way I could warm up was to move around, and that meant I couldn't sleep. So, I laid back down on the branch and tried to doze off. But when the wind blew through, it chilled me to the bone and my fur wasn't of much help. When my shivering got out of control, I decided to set out again. Even if the night dulled my senses, the cold brought them back.

Silently as I could manage, I slipped through the trees. At times, I practically took down the tree. I cursed my slowness, stiff with the cold. On a regular day I would be undetectable. The sun was still down, and just when I thought I was going to freeze to death. It slowly got warmer. My fingers and toes were numb. Every movement felt tight and took a lot of effort. My breath came out in white puffs. My tail was losing feeling. _How could anything live up here? _There was a time of year when the meadow would get a but chilly, but nothing like this. That happened every year, my mom called it winter. But it wasn't winter, it was autumn. _I would hate to be here in the winter. _When the seasons changed in the meadow, most of the time you didn't notice. The only noticeable one was winter.

_The trees here are different, _I realized. The ones at home had little green needles and were easy to climb because the branches were everywhere. Here, they had no bottom branches, and the leaves were big and pointy, and were orange and yellow. _I don't think I'm in Draytor. _This thought scared me. I felt all alone in Transor, like no one else existed. It was dark and strange here, and I wanted to go home. _Wait til the sun rises. It'll be better. _The moon was thin tonight, and let off barley any light. It gave me hope, thinking someone from home was looking up at the same moon. The stars were gone, hiding behind clouds, scared of the ugly landscape that haunted me and this very moment. Finally, I broke down from the cold, exhaustion and fear. I latched myself onto a branch, and pressed my back against the bark as hard as I could. My fingers dug into the tree and I shut my eyes tight, trying to escape reality. Sweat trickled down my fur and it felt as if something were running it's fingers down the effected area. _Stop it! Stop it! Get a grip, Tallia!_

I let my imagination go wild. I was swimming in the lake at home, laughing while splashing Carter. He dove under the water and pulled my down, pretending to be a monster. I giggled and pushed him away. When I resurfaced, I saw Sierra drag Savanna into the water. She screamed. Savanna hates the water. Sierra smiled, pleased with myself. In a few moments, they were upon me, in the middle of the lake. Savanna was freaking out, clutching to Sierra, tightly. Everyone laughed and Savanna gave them death stares. Kramor flew up suddenly and plucked me out of the water. We flew around a while with no destination, and I practiced tricks and maneuvers.

I must have feel asleep because when I opened my eyes, the sun was clear of the horizon. I had made it through the night. Now, in the sunlight, all my previous worries seemed childish. _Good thing there was no one here. _I stretched upwards and learned I was very sore. In a few spots, I found bruises and could feel the ones on my back. "Ugh!" I moaned. I never really minded pain, it made me stronger in the long run. Around people, I acted like I didn't care to seem tougher, and that is just what I will do now.

Quickly leaping to the next tree, I wondered what I would eat for breakfast. _Do berries even grow here? Wouldn't the cold kill them off? _Upon leaping to another tree, I found fruit about the size of my palm growing there. _Is it poisonous? _I certainly had never seen this fruit a day in my life. Curiously, I licked the edge. After a few minutes of not dying, I decided it was safe. Just as I was about to to grab one, a small bird flew by, landed a little while down the tree and ate one. I watched it, searching for any signs of danger, but the bird continued eating. The fruit didn't seem poisonous, so I carefully took a bite. It was delicious, but filling. I could only eat half a dozen before I was full.

Wanting to perpetuate my journey, I started racing along the tree tops. Slowly, my joints and muscles started feeling better. Within an hour, I was almost back to normal, not including my back. Gritting my teeth in frustration, I gave in and healed myself. _So much better!_

Hours passed, and still not a hint of Savanna. _Maybe I'm going the wrong way? No. It feels so right. Tonight will probably be_ _worse. _

Eventually, the dense forest broke away to a large prairie, that stretched out as far as I could see. My jaw dropped. There were no signs of life, no tracks. It would take way more than a day to cover this, and I really didn't want to sleep there. The grass flowed up to my waist. _What kind of creatures live in it's depth? _I really didn't want to go through there. I was so deep in thought, I didn't even see when Kramor flew up and landed in front of me.

After a few moments, Kramor pushed me over with my tail. I fell, unresponsive. It was only when I hit the ground that I snapped out of my haze. "Kramor! What are you doing here?" I wondered. Kramor snorted. it occurred to me that I should have taken Kramor along, they could cover way more ground that way. Then, I remembered the crazily thick forest. _You wouldn't be able to see anything. _But she would come in handy now. "Good to see you. You'll definitively make the trip across the grassland faster." I laughed, hopping onto the sminal's back. To my despair, Kramor flew back towards the meadow, instead of across the prairie.


	10. Chapter 9

"No Kramor! We need to find Savanna!" I pleaded, not ready to give up. Kramor nodded. "Let me down!" I screamed. In reply, she tilted her wings upwards and flew higher. _Can I jump down? _With a heart-wrenching glance down, I had my answer. Nope. Still, Kramor streaked higher and higher. I was heavy with defeat, and slowly drifted off to sleep.

I awoke in the late afternoon, a few miles away from the meadow. "Why would you do this? I need to find her" I cried, miserable. Kramor nodded, understanding. "If you understood, then why would you come and take me away?" I hissed, angry. Kramor focused ahead, not caring to answer. Moments later, they landed in the meadow. There were no search parties out, they had already given up. _So much for not stopping til they find her. _Til they find her.. Carter stood alone, arms crossed angrily. Probably cause I left him behind. Sierra was absent, no doubt training. I searched for Kurt, then remembered I no longer cared. Savanna was not here, they had just simply given up. The meadow seemed much fuller with the military here. They hadn't sent Kramor to get me, that was her own choice.

I hopped off her and went directly to Carter. "Listen, I know you're mad, but I had to go! Savanna's still out there, and I need to find her! That's what a friend does! I had to go alone, I don't expect you to understand." I explained. "What if something had happened to you? Hmm? No one would know! They would assume you're out looking still!" He lectured. "Look, I'm sorry, but Savanna is still out there. So I'm going to keep looking. I'm not gonna stop until I find her. Otherwise I'll hate myself for the rest of my life. I can't make everyone happy, so it's either make you mad now, or me mad forever. Maybe I'm selfish for my choice, but right now I got bigger things to focus on." I snapped and ran off to find Sierra and Mom. Carter was smart not to reply. _Let those words sink in, _I thought, tears running from my face. I had never faught with Carter before.

Upon entering the forest, I found Luther sitting on a low branch. "Hey, Luther!" I called out, wiping my tears. "Oh, hello Tallia. Back from your mission already?" He wondered. "Yeah, Kramor cut it short. I covered a lot of ground though." I explained. "I bet. Any signs of her?"  
>"Nothing." Luther wasn't satisfied with the news. "I hear Carter's not too happy with you." He began. "Carter's been talking about me?" I scowled. "Only to me really. He's just worried for your safety you know."<br>"Yeah, I know Did he tell you to talk to me?" I hissed. "Oh, no. Just thought I'd let you know." He informed. "Thanks." I muttered and charged off towards Sierra's usual training grounds.

Unsurprisingly, I found her jumping over the rocks that I had once smashed my face on, which seemed ages ago. "So you're back." Sierra started, not looking at me, but concentrating on her footwork. "Yeah. Kramor came and got me. It's really cold there!" I laughed. "I'm guessing you didn't find her?"  
>"Nah. I'm still looking though, gonna head out tomorrow." I informed. "I knew it wouldn't be long." She mocked. I laughed. "I don't know which way to go, though." I explained. "Can't help you there. I'm not good with geography." Said Sierra, while walking up to me after easily finishing the course. "Try it soaking wet. You slip everywhere." I laughed, not wanting to be shown up. "You're just jealous I beat you." Sierra replied, sticking her tongue out. "Nah, I beat you all the time." I mocked. She had no reply for that, she just turned serious. "Have you seen my mom?" I questioned. "Not recently. She's still off her hinges though. Whatever that footprint is, it screwed her up." Sierra commented. "Yeah, I'm not sure what it is. Neither is she. I talked to her about it while she was in one of her moods. She sad that it's a blocked memory, but they're dangerous. She hasn't even seen the whole body. They've been making spaced appearances, to avoid suspicion. I think they kidnapped her when she was little or something. Sierra, I think they're planning something against the defels!" I screamed, remembering my thoughts from a few days back.<p>

Sierra took this into thought. "Why though? We've had no attacks since the wherloos like 18 some years ago." She wondered. "Doesn't matter how long it's been. We can't live peacefully forever. They must have known that if they kept up training." I realized. Sierra was nodding now. "Tallia, you need to find Savanna. She's in more danger than we thought."  
>"Than <em>you <em>thought. I've known for days." I pointed out. "If you're mom's still here, then that means they let her go."  
>"Or she escaped."<br>"What does it matter! We have to tell Merfalis!" Sierra ordered, grabbing my forearm and pulling me towards the meadow.

Merfalis usually believes the weird things I tell him, but this time didn't listen. Panicked, I wanted to set out right now, but Sierra kept me back. "As much as I hate to say it, you need rest. Not much can happen overnight. They do sleep too.." She reminded me. I nodded. "I guess. But I'm leaving tomorrow." I informed.

Sierra went on her separate way. We had become closer lately, it was comforting. Especially since she was being nice and not a witch that she could be sometimes. Kramor swooped down and finally got me to go for a ride. Surprisingly, we ended up at the karminyurs pond. One named Shelleray surfaced.

"I hear you're looking for a lost friend." She whispered. "Yeah. Do you know where she is?" I hoped. Shelleray closed her eyes and inhaled loudly. Her webbed fingers stroked the surface. "She is south-west. Not in Draytor. She is located in a neighboring place called Grandoric. But, I must warn you. This is a dangerous place. Do not go alone. Few return. Are you really willing to risk your life for your friend?" She wondered. _I knew she wasn't in Draytor! _"She would do the same for me. Thank you, I'll set out in the morning." I was about to leave when the karminyur spoke again. "You're a strong warrior, Tallia." She began, sounding more like a friend than a wise creature. "I knew your father, you remind me of him. You''re going to do great things in your lifetime. There's a goodness in you, it's driving you to find your friend. As long as you think you can succeed, you will." She mentioned, then splashed back underwater.


	11. Chapter 10

I set out first thing in the morning. Even though Shelleray told me to go with someone, I went alone. I want all the glory for finding Savanna. It proves want a good friend I am. I started running, leaving the meadow for my epic journey. I was hoping to reach the grosm's clearing before lunch. They would leave me alone. Since the defels took out the wherloos, the were scared of us, but also grateful. The wherloos had been terrorizing them too. _It's like a chain reaction. Your actions effect everything. _

I hopped over a fallen tree, lost in my own thoughts. It really helps pass the time. _If I do find Savanna by myself, that would make everyone proud of me, maybe even Estil. __I'm always trying so hard to make him proud, even if he is head. Just somehow, he'll know what I've done. It'll bring me closer to his level. Wouldn't that be something? _A slow smile crossed my face. _Yes, if I do this, there will be a great outcome. _

Since I had been thinking, about everything really, I passed the grosm's clearing a while before noon. I kept to the west side, not necessarily wanting to be seen. Some weren't scared of us, or really even happy with us. They would chase me. A few have before. Once, one caught me and oh boy did I take a beating! Glancing through the trees, I saw their numbers had declined, or many were out and about. Most were silky black, a few grey with age, and very little had a deep navy blue color. I asked my mom about it once, she told me it was for no reason, just the way it was. Kind of like our warrior strips, you don't get a certain color for a reason, you just get one. My case had never happened before, being born with a mix of your parents colors. I always thought it was because of Estil, he was never normal, although no one knew why.

According to Marla, my mom's friend from childhood, he should have gotten his strips months, even_ years_ before he did. He was one of the best warriors, still nothing. Fastest defel, nothing. Tamed and rode a sminal, got nothing. He wouldn't have gotten them from attacking the wherloos either. He had to die and come back to life in order to get them! Then there's me, born with them.

A grosm looked up at me worried, then got a good glimpse of me and his alarmed state relaxed. I ran faster, not in the mood to be chased by one. When I glanced back, the grosm had continued grazing on the grass.

I don't know if it was luck or simply my own clumsiness, but I tripped and landed face first in soft dirt and torn up roots from the grosm's diet. Just as I brought up my arms and started to push myself up, a large grosm sprinted into view from the forest, and jumped out me, just in time. But while it was pulling up it's hooves, one clipped the back of my head, hard. It sent me falling back to the ground. A fiery pain lashed at the area. A low groan escaped my lips as I lied their a moment. I was incredibly dizzy. One thought kept pulsing through my mind. _If you wouldn't have fell, that grosm would have collided with you. You would have just died. _

Grosms run at such fast speeds, that one hitting you would crush bones. Male grosms have 5 sharp horns on their forehead, about two inches long and placed in four corners and it the middle. Those horns would have cut and crushed my neck and head.

Readying myself to get up, my head throbbed violently. I spit out dirt from my mouth. "Blah!" The grosm stomped into the clearing, not caring. With one quick motion, I threw my hands behind my head, latched onto the bleeding gash, and healed it as fast and I could manage. I almost blacked out; from the pain and the effort. Gradually, I began feeling better. Just as the last trickle of blood poured down my face, the would finally healed, but I was weak and breathless. Sleep threatened to pull me away. I quickly got up, only to fall over again.

I was so light-headed, I lost my vision and balance for a moment. When i regained both, I realized I was lying on my back. Still confused and in a daze, I hauled myself up and ran forward, wanting to get away. I had lost for much time. I tried to sprint but could only manage a moderate jog. My vision was blurry and it was hard to see. Stumbling along, I swear every beast in a two mile radius heard me. All I knew I had to do was run.

Within minutes, I was breathless, but had passed the meadow. I propped one arm against a tree and leaned in, catching my breath. _You won't get anywhere like this. _For a moment, I wished for Kramor to fly me there, but then remembered I could miss Savanna completely. Plus I had told her not to follow me. Kramor may be stubborn at times, but always followed orders. I found a relevantly good walking stick and resumed my journey south-west. Walking was way less tiring than running, but still took a lot of effort. I couldn't cure the blood-loss or dizziness, but I could tough it out. When I had fallen, I scraped my left knee and dirt had gotten in, but I refused to heal it. I was stronger than that, plus it might wipe my remaining energy.

I had gotten hungry over the last little while so I ate a few berries and bright green lights. There weren't many around here so whenever I came across some I would eat them. There were trees with dark leaves places around, but majority of the trees had needles. It was rare to find the bright green leaves, so whenever I came across one it was like a little treat.

I had no destinations after the clearing because mostly no one knew what came after that. They saw no need to really leave the beloved meadow. We would be very lost if we had to leave Draytor. Luckily, we won't be going anywhere for a long time.

By the time it was getting dark I had fully recovered, but sleep would help me even more. I probably would have made it a lot farther if I wouldn't have been kicked, but at least I was moving. I was still in Draytor, would probably be in Grandoric by late afternoon tomorrow. The sun was already half way set before I couldn't go anymore.I chucked the stick into the trees then searched around for a place to sleep. Even though a tree would be best, I found a pile of dead leaves and crawled underneath. The sun was still up when I fell asleep.

I was trying to fall asleep in the meadow. I opened my eyes to find myself and Carter curled up beside me. My arms had faint pink strips. _I'm Savanna, _I realized. I rolled onto my back and stretched, looking at the stars. A shooting star crossed, bringing a smile to my, well Savanna's face. There was a cracking in the forest. This didn't alarm me, we were close to the trees and creatures always walked past. It got louder, like it was coming in our direction. Creatures didn't often walk into the meadow, but the random one did appear at times. I looked back at the sky. It was so giant, it made me feel small. More cracks. _It's like they're purposely hitting every branch to annoy us, _I grumbled. Now, I could hear their steps too. Big ones. This made me sit up. Maybe a daragot? Why wouldn't they just fly by? Kramor liked trees, but she would fly here, not walk. The forest was too thick for her big body. There was one last crack, then silence. After a few moments, the weirdest creature I had ever seen, walked into the meadow.

They were grey. It was dark, I couldn't see much. I saw large teething, their eyes were glowing, but white with no pupils. This gave them the appearance of being blind. They had long toes. It was too dark to see anything else, even with night vision. They quickly searched the meadow, before laying eyes on me. They ran at me. Suddenly, I was slapping the sleeping me because Tallia. "Tallia! Wake up!" I heard Savanna scream. They were almost on me. I saw myself shake Tallia, but she wouldn't wake. I should have gotten up, but they would take Tallia. Instead, I linked arms with her. The creatures were upon me now. There was three of them. Two grabbed my legs and the other ripped my arm free. I dug my claws into the soil, hoping to stop them, but they pulled me from the meadow on my stomach. The third one picked up my arms and they carried me. I went into the bush screaming, but Tallia would not wake.


	12. Chapter 11

A breeze cut through my fur and I shuttered. My eyes opened to see leaves blocking my view. For a moment I was puzzled, then remembered sleeping in some leaves. I was in a cold sweat, _ew. _I crawled out of the leaf pile that I had totally demolished with my thrashing last night. When I stood up, I saw my knee had gotten infected. _Ugh, better heal it. _Some infections could be cured, if caught in time. Sure it hurt, but you gotta feel pain to get stronger.

I ate, washed in a stream and I continued in my way, There were no trails now, showing no beasts lived in this area. Most chose to live away from the borders of territories. The sky was bright blue, the sun streamed down through the trees. _It's almost like a regular day at the meadow. How did my life get so stressed so fast? The littlest thing starts a chain reaction. _I started running, wanting to make up for lost ground yesterday. Even though there were no trails, the trees were greatly spaced so you only had to doge one every so often. I must have stuck out like a tree in a lake with my strips, it was so bright here. There were no trees with needles here, just ones with big green leaves and brown trunks. _I don't think I'm in Draytor anymore. _

After another few hours of running, it was lunch and I was certain I was in Grandoric. There was a rather small clearing up ahead, and after munching on some leaves, I decided to rest there.

Laying on my back, face to the sky, the sun relaxed my tired muscles. It was peaceful. A few animals had been appearing now and then, so I was till relativity close to the border. Yet, no trails emerged. A bird chirped from a neighboring tree, and this time no anger boiled up inside of me. I listened to the bird sing and realized how beautiful it was. Before I had found it incredibly annoying, but now it relaxed me even more. The light breeze swished the grass, the tree leaves softly shuttered and I couldn't help but marvel at how genuinely beautiful Transor is.

I must have slept because the next thing I knew it was late afternoon, and I only had a few hours of daylight left. I hauled myself off the smooth grass and laughed at the fact I had made an imprint from being there so long. Then, I was back on my way to find my best friend.

As I wandered father and father into the forest, still no trails appeared. _Either they don't do much traveling, or this place is bigger than I thought. It's like searching for a needle in a haystack. __There's no prints, no signs. _I was convinced I was in the wrong place. Grandoric is huge! _There's endless possibilities to where she is. I probably should have brought someone along. What if there is hundreds there and they want to fight me? I'm good, but not that good. Maybe if I had Kramor? No, she's too far away, plus I told her not to come. _

Another few hours and it was getting dark. Since I had a nap, I wasn't tired and decided to keep going. But with each step my hopes grew lower and lower. It seemed unlikely I would find her. _Is this what a search party would feel like? I'm glad I'm not one. But you are different than them, you know this victim. You will find her. Do you know how much of a failure you will be if you don't bring her back? It's going to be nearly impossible. You brought this one yourself. _

Just as all hopes seemed lost, a sign appeared in the distance. It was very unusual looking in the forest. But it was familiar. Curious, I sprinted towards it and latched the object into my hands. It was dark now so I had to hold it close to my face to see it. Looking back, I'm luck it wasn't a snake or something. It looked like a bracelet, with colored leaves interwoven together. _This is Savanna's! _My mind flashed back to a week ago, when she twirled it, and all the other times she did too. _You will find her! She was here! You're closer than you think._ This gave me an energy boost and I shot through the trees like lightning, nearly close-lining myself more than once.

Moments later, I was exhausted and breathless. _I won't sleep for a while. _So instead, I dived into a small, but deep pond to cool off. The moon reflected off the water, which was warm. It felt good after my sprint. But after a few minutes, I practically fell asleep in the water, so I pulled myself out and found shelter in between a trees two prominent roots. As I drifted off, I was still dripping wet.

Even though I had fallen asleep late, I awoke before the sun rose. That was a few hours away. Today I was walking, not wanting to miss anything, plus I was tired of running. I passed many fields with creatures in them, but didn't know most of them. I would stare and stare, until I was sure Savanna wasn't there. I was far away from the border now and I felt so alone. Truly, I was homesick, longing for the meadow. The creatures here must hate to trail, there's hardly any trails. It was weird, bushwhacking for days on end, but this seemed like the place I would take someone if I kidnapped them.

It was still bright out, hardly even noon, but suddenly everything went black. I think the weirdest thing was I also lost consciousness, but saw long toes on the way down.


	13. Chapter 12

As I awoke, I found my arms couldn't move. I struggled and struggled until I realized my arms were tied behind my back and around a tree. As I craned my neck to see if I could untie myself, something else caught my eye. Another arm. Black and pink fur. "Savanna!" I screamed, then shut myself up. Those creatures could be lurking anywhere. "Savanna!" I hissed under my breath. _Is she dead? _"Savanna!" I whispered, louder. I nudged her with my arm. _Am I too late? _Savanna groaned. "Wake up!" I snapped. "Tallia? What are you doing here?" She wondered, finally coming to. "I was looking for you. Guess I found you." I laughed, trying to clear the air. "Oh Tallia, you shouldn't have come." She whispered, scared.

"Savanna, what did the do to you?" I shrieked. I couldn't take it, I had to see her. Carefully, I scooted around the tree, trying to avoid getting scraps from the rough bark. She was tied to a tree that split out from mine at the bottom. When I first saw her face, my jaw dropped.

Her whole right cheek was swollen, you could barley see her eye. There was a massive cut across her left cheek bone, her hair was thinner, she had a black eye and there were numerous cuts and bruises all over her body. "Oh my- Savanna, are you okay?" I yelled, a little too loudly. She looked at me with fearful eyes. "No. I'm not, Tallia. You shouldn't have came, you'll get it worse. Run!" She whispered. "I'm tied down, I can't. I'm not gonna leave you here. I've been looking for you because that's the kind of friend I am. I'd travel the world for you. I'm going to get you out of here, we're gonna go home. I promise."

She was near tears. "You don't know what they've done to me. What they're going to do to you." She warned. I pressed against her to give support, but she inched away. _What have they done to you?_ She must have read my expression because she answers: "If they even see us talking, we're gonna get beaten. Please, don't talk." She pleaded. I nodded. _You're not the same person anymore. Will you ever be? _I quickly scooted to the other side of the tree. "Why don't you heal yourself?" I wondered. "I did. I used to be _a lot _worse." She hissed. "No talking." Came a gruff voice from the shadows.

"Oh, no." Savanna whispered, barley audible. "That's Tranker, the guard. We're in trouble." There were a few steps in the darkness, then he appeared into the streaming sunlight. It was the strangest beast I had ever seen. It was tall, very tall. About six feet taller than me. It was grey, purple and hairy, but not as hairy as a defel. They had the same hands as us. Their feet had very long toes. _Like the dream and the track, _I realized in horror. Tranker had pointed ears and a long snout. But most terrifying of all, was his eyes. They glowed like a defels, but only white. With no pupils.

"There's consequences for talking." He growled, flashing an evil grin. His teeth were deadly sharp. _They're carnivores. _He first approached me, and struck his palm across my cheek. A firey pain spread across my face. Something dripped onto my shoulder. I glanced down to see a bright red dot. _Blood. _I inspected his sharp claws. My eyes narrowed. "If you think you can just go and hit me like that, newsflash, you're going to get it back! Ever heard of karma? Mark my words, I will take you down!" I hissed through bared teeth. _Well that was a mistake. _

He gripped the top of my head and pulled it up, leaving my throat exposed to this dreadful beast. He placed a claw upon my neck and slowly, painfully dragged it across my throat and chest. He didn't puncture the skin, which mad it twice as painful. He let go and thrust my head down painfully and went to punish Savanna. _I'll get you for this. _I gingerly looked down, trying not to hurt my neck too much. A red, angry scar had been left in it's place. Since my arms were tied behind my back, I couldn't heal myself. _It's like they know. _Pain was spreading across my upper body, I almost passed out. Blood was dripping off my face like rain. _Are his claws poisonous? _My head was drowsy.

I heard a thump and Savanna hissed in a breath of pain. I blinked and had to force myself to open my eyes again. She was breathing hard, as if almost crying. She was never the strong type. Tranker walked back into the trees, laughing. The tree we were tied to was alone, about ten feet away from the nearest trees. I wouldn't be able to lay down flat on my back. The sun streamed down through the lefty trees and straight into my face. Savanna whispered something I couldn't make out. My vision swarmed. I couldn't concentrate. _Why are all the trees so lop-sided? _Then, once again, the world went black.


	14. Chapter 13

I awoke with a groan. It was late afternoon. _How long was I passed out? Is Savanna okay? What was that creature? Are there more? _My head swarmed with questions. I had the biggest migraine, and the sun was too bright. I longed to talk to Savanna, but didn't want to get in trouble again. Glancing down, I registered that the mark Tranker had made was still there, looking angrier than ever. I started to yawn, but then winced in pain. I could feel three individual cuts on my right cheek reopen, sending more blood dripping down my body.

There were no signs of other creatures anywhere. Come to think of it, I saw no creatures at all, even birds. I could hear Savanna breathing from here, she was awake. I stretched out my legs, which covered over half the space between this tree and the next. This caused the dead leaves beneath my to crack. I signed, sounding way to loud for the quiet forest. "Most of them will be sleeping. The guards hardly pay attention to us right now." She whispered so low I almost missed it. "What kinda creatures are they?" I questioned, wondering if she even heard me. "Fraylors. I heard one mention it once. They don't hate me in particular, just our kind. I don't know why." She replied. _They've got to be planning something. _I didn't dare tell Savanna this, it'll worry her too much. I have to protect her from as much as I can, she's been through enough. I licked my parched lips. "Are their claws poisonous?" I worried. "I'm not too sure. I'm thinking they are, just with the sting they bring. It's unnatural." She hissed.

Footsteps. I straightened up. They were coming from the right of me. Savanna must have been on the other side of the tree now. I couldn't see her. They got louder. Savanna was whimpering, but quickly shut herself up. I turned my face into a stone, cold and expressionless. I saw flashes of fur as the thing walked closer. Grey fur. _Fraylors. _I narrowed my eyes as two of them came into view. Tranker and an older ones. "This is the new one?" He questioned, examining me. "Yes. We found her roaming around near the area two days ago." Tranker explained. "She looks familiar." He replied, still searching me. "What were you doing so far from home?" He wondered, putting his hands on his knees, bending closer to me. _You know where I live? Of course you do, you took Savanna. _His face was a mere seven inches from my face, way too close for comfort. His scary white eyes stared right into mine. I hated him. He has no right to know about me. I spat at him. He jumped back in surprise, and I caught a flash of blue leathery material attached to his back. It quickly disappeared.

He straightened up quickly and struck me across the left side of my face. Pain exploded suddenly and I had to work hard to get my face plain again. "Arrogant girl! You will learn to cooperate! Just for that, two more days without food or water. Then maybe you will listen." He snapped. I flinched expecting another hit, but it didn't come. Instead, the two barbarians trailed over towards Savanna. "At least this one isn't so stubborn. Hello darling. How many are there where you come from?" He asked randomly. I was shocked when she didn't lie. "Oh, about two hundred." She trembled. "And how's your military? Are they good fighters?" Tranker demanded. "Oh, yes. Very good I would say. We train every few days, in case of an attack." She informed. _Are you crazy! If you're going to be truthful, don't give away every detail! Even though you can't lie to save your life don't tell them everything! Don't even bluff! You could be sentencing the defels to certain death! _

"Every few days?" Tranker repeated as if shocked by the news."Yes, sometimes more, sometimes less." _You're just giving them hints to help them kill us off! At least you haven't said anything about my strengths yet. _"You've been a big help, someone will bring you food soon." Came the older ones voice. They retreated the way they came, with Tranker giving me a satisfied look, showing me he had beaten me. _If I say anything, they'll be listening. Two options: Wait til Savanna talks, or wait til nightfall. There's no way they can see in the dark with eyes like those. They won't be able to hurt us. _

This was on of the longest days of my life. My shoulders hurt from the angle my wrists were tied at, and my butt was numb from sitting. I had brought my legs close to my body and pushed upwards into a stand position, only to have Tranker come and hit me again. My face was now swollen on both sides, plus I had a black eye as well. Someone had brought Savanna some food, I had seen some roots, leaves and berries. I had to listen to Savanna eat while my stomach growled loudly. I was very thirsty, my thoughts were cloudy. I hadn't drank or ate anything for the last two days, and still had to wait another two. Tranker rarely showed his face, but when he did, it was either to yell at me or remind Savanna not to share food with me. They had changed her, she was directed by fear, would do anything so she wouldn't suffer. As far as I was concerned, I had gotten more mean and stubborn with my time here. They had won Savanna over, but there was no way they will get me. I'll drag Savanna onto my side if I have too, but she will never be the same. The time she spent here had changed her, maybe beyond repair, and each day made it worse. _They will not get me, no matter how hard they hit me. _

Whenever I figured Tranker wasn't watching, I would slowly creep over a tiny, unnoticeable bit. I had to talk to Savanna, I figured she either felt bad or didn't know what was going on. But I couldn't tell her, which made convincing her to lie that much harder. I still wouldn't talk to any fraylor, that would mean their win if I did. That didn't mean Savanna had too. They had already won her over. They had to trust her word. I have moved a quarter of my way there. "Do they keep a guard on us overnight?" I wondered. "They probably will now since you're here. They don't trust you. The guards usually fall asleep thought. They have poor night vision." She whispered. We'll talk then." I explained. I don't care if she likes the idea or not, I'm talking to her

I had moved back a bit, to avoid suspension. It was still bright out, I had a few hours, but I decided to sleep. There was nothing else to do really. I would wake up in a few hours and have a good talk with Savanna. The first one in a while.


	15. Chapter 14

When I had awoken it was pitch black. It took a moment for my night vision to cue in. The moon was high in the sky, but not bright enough to illuminate the ground below. I could hear Savanna's steady breathing. She was awake. _She probably wants to talk too. _"They'll be asleep now." She whispered, acknowledging I was awake. Her quiet voice sounded too loud for the night. "How do you know that?" I questioned, unsure. "Do you really take me to be that unobservant?" She laughed quietly. "I notice more than you realize. Plus you can hear him snoring from here. Just listen." The forest went silent for a moment. Then I heard the steady drown of Tranker's light snore. After a few moments, Savanna broke the silence. "What do you want to talk about?" I blinked, trying to sharpen my fuzzy thoughts. "I'm not going to tell them anything." I began slowly. "Typical you. I didn't think you would anyways." She muttered. "No, I'm not. It's clear you will. I know you can't lie to save your life, but you can't be as truthful as you're being. They don't need to know every detail of our species. If you're going to tell the truth, only say a bit." I hissed, angry. "The only thing that comes from lying is pain."  
>"Yeah, well a lot more bad will come from telling the truth. Just take one for the team, Savanna."<br>"What are you saying, Tallia?" She wondered. "I'm saying bad things will come from you giving away our colonies secrets. Be careful with your words." I warned. She hushed up after that.

I figured she had fallen asleep, and I was starting to drift off again. "What happened after I disappeared?" She asked curiously. I tried to shake away the drowsiness. "Well, no one suspected anything at first. I went around looking for you, but after I couldn't find you, I figured something had happened. When I returned to the meadow, I found your claw marks in the ground. I put two and two together and figured you were kidnapped." I explained. Savanna laughed. "I kind of thought you were going to be the one to find me. I honestly thought it would take longer than this, not just a few days." She confessed. "Ha-ha, yeah. I told Merfalis, and he sent out search parties. I ventured out on my own, in the wrong way at first, than a karminyur named Shelleray pointed me this way." I continued. "Shelleray? I've talked with her a few times. She's a great person." Savanna giggled, as if in a dream.

"It took me a while, but I got into Grandoric. I was about to give up and go home, but then I saw your bracelet. I must have dropped it when they kidnapped me, sorry. I knew it meant a lot to you." I whispered. "It's felt weird not wearing it, but it's okay. Just the fact that you're here makes it better. I don't like you suffering too." Her voice cracked. I was starting to hear some of the old Savanna again. _She's crying. _I could hear her muffled sobs. "It's fine Savanna. What doesn't kill you makes you stronger, or succeeds in a second attempt." I joked. She laughed quietly. "But seriously, I don't mind. They had no right to take you, you have no reason to be here. But I'll get you out, I promise." I murmured. "Thanks, Tallia. Oh, how did Kurt take it?"

_Oh no, you didn't just ask that. Should I tell her? She'll be pissed! If we get back it'll be worse. _"He was really broken up about it. I had to get Carter to calm him down. He seemed calm down, until me and Sierra found him kissing another girl the next day." I said slowly, wincing. I didn't want to hear her reply. "What?" She practically shouted, forgetting where we were. "Shh. He gave up on you, figured you weren't coming back. Me and Sierra hit him a few times and threatened him though." I mumbled in a grave voice. "Well, I'll have to have a little _chat _with him." She said smugly. She sounded fine with it, took it better than I figured. Even though I couldn't see her, I knew her eyes were blazing. This marked the end of our conversation. The silence was a bit awkward and it bothered me how quiet the forest was. I locked onto the sound of Tranker's light snore, and slowly dozed off again.


	16. Chapter 15

Days passed slowly. The time felt wasted, there were better things I could do with my life. I hated sitting around. It made me feel lazy. They started to feed me and give me water.I had to fight hard to keep it down since I ate too fast. The water had amazing effects, my mind defogged and my throat soothed. I was hardly hungry when they fed me, which made me eat even faster with fear. Savanna and I had hushed, secret conversations at night. The fraylors didn't know. Most of the time it was on things of home, old memories, what happened after and so on. I had to watch myself not to talk about Carter, since her situation with Kurt. There wasn't much else to do during the day besides sleep. I had to be careful to not seem tired, just bored, otherwise Tranker would become suspicious.

I didn't see many fraylors, most just Tranker. Sometimes the older man would return and ask questions, just watch us, or hit us to see how we reacted. Mostly I fumed, or snapped at him. Sometimes I gave him dirty looks, unwilling to show his win. Savanna would cry out, or whimper for some time. They liked her reaction much better, they seemed confused with mine. _Like they don't know what to do with me. They're definitively doing research. More information for their sick little plan. _It certainly seemed that they questioned how different our reactions were. _They want to see how we would act in battle. This is certainly not battle circumstances, and it changes our expressions. But they're trying to be sneaky about it. _I knew Savanna would act different if this was battle, but she didn't understand why they were doing this. _She probably just thinks they hit us to show their power or because they can. _Over half the times they've hit me had had no reason, not because I disobeyed. _But we're not gonna get out of here unless we bust out. They're going to kill us, I just don't know when. _

By evening, I was already considering a plan, until some branches cracking interrupted my thoughts. Annoyed, I put my thoughts on hold while I waited for someone to walk into our little space of hell. Surprisingly, they stopped around fifteen yards out, it was hard to tell, I couldn't see them. _They clearly don't know where they are. _I overheard that all fraylors were forbidden to walk anywhere near us. Still, I figured their conversation was more interesting than sitting here, waiting for them to leave, so I started to eavesdrop. Their secretive, hushed voices drew my interest. This was something no one was supposed to hear.

"I couldn't understand the plan, it was all confusing to me." Said a male, who sounded young, I couldn't tell the age. "Long story short, it basically meant we're going to take one each day, until there's enough to take them all as a group." Explained another young male. _What are they talking about? _"Why can't we just take em out now?"  
>"They're too vast in numbers, and from what the kidnapped ones say, they're strong." The second one informed. <em>Kidnapped ones? That's us! Unless they have captured other species too.. <em>"Kidnapped ones? The second one's finally talking?" _That's me.. _"No, but they're going to get her to talk, no matter what it takes." _Is that a threat? You will not break me! I'm stronger than you realize! I'm stronger than you! _I screamed in my mind. My head was streaming with so many other thoughts, I almost missed the next sentence. "We set out tomorrow."

_Tomorrow? Set out? _Suddenly, I realized what they were saying, and my previous thought from a few weeks ago returned. _They're planning something against the defels. _I understood what they had been saying. They're going to going to kidnap a defel each day, until our numbers were small enough to kill us off! _I have to get back! _I noticed I had been moving around nosily, then I caught myself. They hadn't noticed me. "Maybe that will teach them a lesson for killing off the wherloos." Laughed the second one. _Killing off the wherloos? That happened over 18 years ago! Man, can you guys hold a grudge. Did they wait so long to figure out a plan, or did they want to avoid suspicion? _Either way, we're not ready for them. Even with the crazy training, none of them have fought a war and with smaller numbers, we have a less chance of winning. _I need out! I must warn them! _

Anything Savanna has told them will help in contributing to our slaughter. _Is she awake? _I listened a moment. _No. _The two fraylors crept away in the direction they came. _Gosh, they sure are noisy._ A new thought occurred. _What if they were sent over her to have the sneaky conversation, knowing I would overhear and worry? That worry would eventually eat away at me, or they'd release me to go back and spread panic. _I hate decisions, I would always make others choose for me, but now it involves hundreds of lives. _I'm going to tell Savanna. _


	17. Chapter 16

I awoke the next morning, my shoulders aching. It was hard enough sleeping like that, but having your hands tied behind you for days hurts. Everything felt peaceful. The sun was warm, I was full, I was with my friend. A movement high in the trees caught my attention. When I saw the fraylor crouched in the highest branches of a neighboring tree, the peacefulness vanished. It was replaced with hatred. _You have no right to keep us here. _The fraylor was well hidden behind the leaves. His tail twitched under the branch from side to side. When I made eye contact with him, he looked scared. He ducked a bit more into the trunk, clearly not wanting to be seen. I had never seen him before. He was younger than Tranker, I couldn't tell his age. He sat there, watching us. I couldn't decide if he was a guard or just a random fraylor wanting to see the prisoners. He could have been a spy. The weird thing about him was, he wasn't angry at us, like the rest of the fraylors I had seen. The others hated us terribly. Branches cracked, travelling in my direction. I looked towards the sound, saw Tranker and glanced back up at the little spy. He was scared. _It's almost like he wants to help me. _

Tranker crashed through the tree line, followed by the old guy. I had heard his name was Revlor, he was their leader. Like Murawl, he should have died already. His breath was rotten, so I always held my breath when he leaned in close to whisper at me. _What now? _I moaned inwardly.

To my surprise, Revlor sat cross-legged in front of me. _What the hell? _My legs were tucked up to my chest, but if I extended them, I could reach him. Tranker stood around him, arms crossed. _Looks like I found yet another way to piss them off. _At first, they bothered both of us, but now they only bug me, not Savanna very often. _She's not as entertaining as me, _I thought with a smug look. But right now, a fly crawling up the side of a tree would be more fun than me. Tranker was giving me death glances, and Revlor was trying to intimidate me. _How many times we gotta do this? Not gonna work, pal. _We sat like this for a few moments. Then he laughed. Even Tranker was grinning a bit. "I hope you didn't get too attached to your little tribe. Soon they'll be gone, and it's because of your help." He giggled. I pretending not to care. Savanna ruined my act by gasping. Tranker had a little evil laugh thing going on, and Revlor was watching my every move. _My god, you guys are annoying. _

In a flash, I stuck out my leg and slashed Revlor in the upper right thigh. To my pleasure, his skin opened into three large, bright red slashes. Blood poured immediately. Before they could react, I pulled my leg back, stood up and attempted to pull my arms free. I still had no idea what they used to hand cuff me, but it would not break. I had planned to fight my way out, but this ruined everything. The old fraylor cried out in pain and surprise, and the guard lashed out and hit me across the cheek, hard. I fell to my left side, face first into the dirt. The pain was excruciating. I rolled back to face them. Revlor was getting up and approaching me. _Gah. _He brought his arm back, extended his fingers to sleep me, but instead, sliced four angry scars across my chest, on top of the unhealed one left by Tranker the first day. If I thought that one hurt, this one was a killer. The other one was a swim in the lake compared to this.

Blood poured down my body and he continued to cut me open. Two fingers across the cheek, four across my arm and leg. Tranker jumped in and started punching me in the stomach. One extra-hard blow and my oxygen was gone. _Please, stop. _I thought numbly. I was aware my eyes were close. My legs were wet. I opened one eye, the other was swollen shut. I was in a puddle of blood. I had large gashes all over. _There is a lot of blood in people._ Once again, my vision swayed and danced. Still more blows came. I didn't know how much blood I had left. Finally, a kick to the head knocked me out cold.

I must have been passed out for a long time, because when I woke up it was sunset. I wish I hadn't woke up. Everything hurt. Most of my cuts had stopped bleeding, but there were a few larger ones that were still. It's surprising how little you could fight back when you're tied up. I looked down to see my ankles were tied together too. _That's right, I'm dangerous. So are the rest of the defels. We will take you down! _Most of the blood puddle I was sitting in was gone. Judging by the size, I should have died from blood loss. My left eye was swollen shut, and I could feel more than seven bruises on my face. I think I dislocated my shoulder when Tranker knocked me on my face. They definitively had poison in their claws, each cut felt on fire. Plus there was a strange purple tint to my cuts. I struggled to sit up and cried out with the effort. "Are you alright?" Savanna whispered in her usual motherly fashion. "No." I hissed in a breath. I noticed her arm had been in contact with mine the whole time. Which would explain why my cuts weren't as bad as they should have been. Probably why I didn't die. She had been healing me the whole time.

"Sorry I couldn't do anything to help." Savanna apologized. "It's fine, there was nothing you could do. Hey, did they stop after I passed out?" I wondered. "I think they hit you a few times after, then left." I groaned in pain. "I think I dislocated my shoulder. It's very painful and looks out of whack." I explained, staring at the bump I believed to be my bone. "I would love to help you, but I tied up too. The guy was bleeding pretty bad when they left. You lost a lot of blood, I'm surprised you didn't die." Savanna whispered, sounding scared. "Well, it helps that you're healing me. Where's Tranker now?"  
>"I think he's with Revlor figuring out what to do with you. You shouldn't have done that. You'll most likely be killed now. I can't just sit here and watch that happen. Not after you came and saved me. What did they mean about 'not getting too attached to our tribe'?" Savanna wondered. I leaned my head against the trunk, looking up. Shockingly, the boy from earlier was still there, listening. I stared at him, hard, while explaining the next thing to Savanna. "They have a plan to kill us. They're kidnapping one defel each day until we have small enough numbers to kill them all off. That's why your information was helping them, they have advantages now." I was becoming drowsy again, I closed my eyes.<p>

Savanna seemed to be taking this in. "When's it starting?" She asked. "Started today. They set out before they came and jumped me." I whispered, exhausted. I managed to open my eyes to see the young fraylor on a low branch now, less than fifteen feet away from me. Savanna gasped at the news. Then went back to thinking. The boy crawled down another few feet, watching me. Savanna didn't know of his presence. He was almost at the ground now. I could tell he wasn't a guard, just a curious kid. Before I could stop myself, I called out to him.

"They catch you here you'll end up like me!" He stopped. "What?" Asked Savanna. I shushed her. The boy looked at me. "I know." He sounded nicer than the rest. "I'll get beat up again too. I don't care if you do." I hissed. He sat on the branch, feet and tell hanging off. I drooped with his weight. "Tallia, what are you talking about? Who are you talking to?" She quizzed. "Savanna, shut up. Why are you here? What's your name?" I asked the boy, pushing away the drowsiness. "I'm Joyl. I just wanted to see you guys. I was going to warn you about what was happening, but I guess you already found out." He informed. "Why?" I growled. "I like your kind. I don't get why they still hate you, that insistent happened over eighteen years ago. I want to help you guys out. I over heard their plans. They don't like your attitude, and the other one is useless now, they know everything they need to. They're going to kill you. Tomorrow. If I untie you, promise not to hurt me?" Joyl explained. "Don't. They'll make it worse. But you can pop my shoulder back into place. And get me food, they're not gonna feed me after what happened today." He looked hesitant. "I'm not gonna hurt you. I only cut him because he's annoying and abusive. So far you don't meet any of those characteristics, so you're good in my books." I informed.

Joyl hopped down from the tree and approached me. He was the only quiet fraylor I knew. Right now, I was happy for it. For a moment, he glanced around, then picked up a large root and stuff it in my mouth. I was about to spit it out when he said "It muffles the screams." With a sudden jerk, he popped it into place. It was so sudden I screamed into the root, and the pain was gone. I spit it out. "Thanks, kid." I mumbled. "You okay, Tallia?" Savanna whispered. "Just dandy." I groaned.

Joyl skipped off into the forest, only to return moments later with leaves and berries. I had never seen them before. He picked up a purple berry. "This fights infection. These leaves will draw out the poison." He reported pressing the leaves on my cuts. He placed the berry in my open mouth. It was delicious. He places a light blue berry in my mouth next. It wasn't as good, but I was hungry. "That one makes your cuts heal faster, same with this one." Joyl informed while putting a translucent leaf in my moth, which had no taste. "Remember to kick the leaves off before you pass out, they'll know I was here. This will help you sleep." He put a red berry wrapped in a green lead in my mouth. It was so bad I almost puked. "Yeah, it's bad. The poison should be out now." He figured, pulling the leafs off. The cuts didn't burn anymore, they were just a tad sore. He put one last berry in my mouth. It was better than a hablee. "What was that for?" I wondered. "Just to taste good. Now, go to sleep. The berries will get to work soon." He ordered, smiling. "Thanks." I croaked, tired. "Not all of us are bad. It was my pleasure." Joyl ran back into the forest, this time he wasn't returning.

I had just closed my eyes when Savanna spoke again. "Hey, Tallia? Why don't you ever call Estil your dad?" She asked randomly. "Huh?" I gasped. "Well, whenever you talk about your dad, you call him Estil, not dad. Why?"  
>"Oh. Well I never knew him, so he seems more like a hero from history than my father, with how people talk about him and stuff." I explained. "Oh, I see." I didn't think she would ask anything else, so I dozed off.<p> 


	18. Chapter 17

I awoke the next morning, feeling a lot better than I had all week. _It would really be helpful if I knew these berries, _I figured while searching the trees for Joyl. My heart dropped when I realized he wasn't there. I looked down to register my wounds. My shoulder was back to normal now, the bigger cuts on my arms and legs were already scabbing up, the smaller ones were almost completely gone. The four major slash marks on my chest had just started to scab up, but the lone scratch from Tranker days ago was gone. There were many bruises, but there was nothing Joyl could do about those.

I heard Savanna crying. I carefully inspected the trees for Tranker. Finding no signs of him, I decided it was safe to speak. "Savanna, are you okay?" I worried they had beat her while I was out. "No, Tallia. They're going to kill us today. We have to get out of here. There's so much I haven't done yet." She squealed. "It'll be okay. We all gotta go sometime right?"  
>"I wanted to see the meadow one last time." She wished. I remembered how the last thing I did with Carter was fight. <em>Is that how he'll remember me? They won't even know I'm dead. No, he won't. I'm not going to die today, neither is Savanna. <em>"I promised I would get you out of here, so I will. I didn't come all this way just to die. We're going to get home alright?" I reassured her. "How? They're going to kill us today!" Carefully I felt the object keeping me to the tree. It felt like a sturdy vine. _Vine? _My mind flashed back to the training course. The vines falling around me. _They were cut. We can cut these and go home. _I knew what we had to do.

"Okay, Savanna, I need you to listen closely. We're tied by vines. I'm going to get you to spin around as much as you can manage, and use your feet to slice through my vine, okay? Then, I'll untie my feet and cut through yours." I instructed. I heard leaves crunch as she turned, then felt a pull at my wrist. She grunted with the effort. After a few moments, she still didn't have it. "Whats taking so long?" I hissed. "It won't cut!" She cried in frustration. "You can't cut through those." Joyl said while stepping into the sunlight.

I almost screamed. I didn't think he would sneak up on us. "Why not?" I demanded. "It's a special type of vine. Only comes off with water from a certain pool around here." He explained. "So this is who you were talking to before." Savanna realized. "Yep. Joyl, could you go get this water? We're breaking out before they kill us." I explained. He nodded. "You may want to be quieter, they would hear you. We have excellent hearing." He advised, running back into the forest.

With every passing minute, my nerves few more tense. Finally, Joyl returned with a hand full of water. He dumped onto my legs, then spit out some from his mouth onto our wrists. "It'll take a moment, then you'll have to rip it off." He mentioned. Just before time was up, they one thing I didn't want to happen, happened. Twigs cracked. "They're coming." Joyl hissed. I attempted to pull my hands free with no success. "It's not time yet." He advised. They were still a bit away. More cracks. I couldn't see them yet. Joyl bent down and started sawing the vine off with his claws. "Hurry!" I hissed. More cracks. They'd be here soon. The vine gave out.

Quickly, he moved to our wrists. My heart was pounding in my ears. _What would they do if they caught him?_ More cracks. I saw a flash of grey. The leaves were thick enough that they couldn't see Joyl. In less than a minute, they'd be here. The tops of the trees rustled from their movement. Savanna's tore free. She went to get up. "No, Savanna! They're too close. Act like you're still tied down." I hissed. They were almost here. "Run Joyl!" I ordered. Finally, mine torn free. They would be here in seconds. I kept my hands behind the tree. They would catch him for sure.

To my surprise, Joyl opened his _wings _and flew straight up and out of view. _They have wings? _They were blue and large. I figured their fur must hide them when they fold up against their back. Seconds after Joyl was gone, Tranker and Revlor burst into view. I narrowed my eyes. "Remember, I get the orange one." Revlor laughed to Tranker. I noticed his leg was still badly cut, and he had a small limp. _They must not know about the berries. _They stood there for a moment. Then, without warning, they both attacked me at once. The first blow was delivered and I realized they were trying to kill me. Enraged, I pulled my hands from behind the tree and shoved them off me. I lept up quickly, only to get light headed from sitting for so long. For a moment, my sight was gone and in that moment, they regained their balance.

When my vision returned, I saw them get ready to hit me again, so I threw our a punch and hit Revlor straight in the jaw. Obviously, they didn't know how hard I could hit. I did a left round-house kick to Tranker, and he fell over, winded. The old fraylor tried to cut me, but I dived out of the way. Tranker hauled himself up and they both lept on top of me. They grabbed my arms and pinned them to the ground, so I couldn't fight back. _They will kill me. _"Savanna!" I screamed. At once, i saw black and pink fingers latch onto Tranker's shoulders and pull him off me. Right now, I wished she had been Sierra instead, but she would have to do. Tranker had been holding down my left arm, and now I swung a punch at Revlor and knocked him off me.

I jumped on top of him and violently slashed away at his torso. "This is for hitting me you son of a bitch!" I cried between hits. He slapped a palm of the side of my ear painfully, and rolled over so he was now on top of me. His eyes were blazing, blood poured down from his stomach. He punched my right cheek straight on a bruise and I brought my tail and smashed it against his back. His eyes rolled up into his head and he went unconscious. I kicked him off me and went to help Savanna.


	19. Chapter 18

Tranker was on top of her, since she wasn't the best fighter. I sprinted towards them, jumped and Tranker and ripped him off her. I rolled, still in the air and threw him to my left. I landed with a hard thud. Tranker collided with a tree and snapped it. I got up and knelt by Savanna. She has two major gashes across her chest that formed an 'X'. They were worryingly deep, but not deep enough to puncture her chest cavity. She was breathing hard and crying. She was trying her hardest not to cry, but the years poured anyways. She was scared, scared for her life. I placed my hands carefully on her shoulders and began healing her. "What's going to happen to us, Tallia?" She whispered, voice cracking. Since she had quit training, she wasn't prepared for any of this, I hardly was. Looking into her eyes, I caught a glance of how the meadow would turn out without our warning. "We're going to make it. Soon, we're going to run. We're going to run hard, all the way back. We're going how." I smiled at the thought. It would be quiet easy, they were slow. With a sickening thought, I remembered they could fly. We wouldn't be able to out-run their wings.

Carefully, I glanced at the two fraylors. Tranker was laying a few yards away, groaning in pain, and Revlor was unconscious. I slowly crept up to him and pulled his wing out for examination. The blue, leathery material was strong. They would be faster than us. I felt the wing between my fingers. Thick, sturdy, Savanna screamed. I almost jumped out of my fur. I whirled around to see Tranker standing over her, grinning an evil grin, blood on his claws. With a sickening glance down, I saw he had slit Savanna's throat. It was a matter of moments before she died. Quickly, I lept at Tranker with all I had left in me. I knocked him over, even though it felt like hitting a brick wall. On impact, his arms flew up, creating a large, painful cut over my right eye about two inches long. I had closed my eye just in time, otherwise I wouldn't have been able to ever see out of my right eye again. We crashed into the trees and fell onto a soft mat of moss. _Of course it couldn't have been pointed rocks. _

I brought my hand back and slashed three angry cuts in his grey and purple fur, right across his forehead. His hand shot up and grasped my neck. He stood up and held me well over eight feet above the ground, with his height. He had fury in his eyes. To my surprise, he laughed. "What a shame it would be to die the same way your father did the first time. Straggled. Helpless. He would have died sooner if his little pet wasn't there to save him. Too bad it's not here now." _You know who my father is? Shut up! Shut up! Shut up! _I screamed. I was running out of air. My face must not have been as emotionless as I thought. "That's right. I know who you are, Tallia, daughter of Estil, who killed the wherloos. It's time to face the consequences!" He laughed. _If I don't die first, I'll kill you. _

I latched my hands onto his. "Oh, that's no use. You're too weak. Just like your father, otherwise he would still be alive today." He spat. _Too bad I wasn't trying to pull your fingers off dumb ass, _I thought back. I pulled my arms against his, raising my feet up. Faster than lightning, I sliced my claws through his arm, and hit the bone. He screamed in pain and dropped me. I handed hard on my feet, but started running towards Savanna, who was still fighting for life. I was breathless. I threw my hands onto her and tried to heal her as fast as I could. It seemed to be working. The harder I tried, the faster it went. Soon, her wind pipe closed and she gasped in breaths. When she got her breath back, she assisted me in healing her.

She was forced to take over when Tranker ripped me back into the woods. By then, it was just a bleeding gash on Savanna. He threw me into a tree and pain spread across my back. I caught a glance of his arm and saw I had cut down to the bone on his right arm, which was his stronger one. I had even cut a bit into the bone. He was walking quickly towards me and I spun around and climbed the tree he had thrown me at. Tranker sprinted at me, latched onto my tail and smashed me to the ground. Just my luck, I landed on several pointed objects. Tranker jumped onto me and delivered several deadly blows to my head, trying to knock me out. Anger filled through me, and I caught his next punch with my hand.

His eyes opened wide. I barred my teeth and hissed at him. "My father was not weak!" I hollered. I could see a lighter white area in the middle of his eyes. _So, they have pupils after all. Still, creepy. _I raised my head and bit down into his left shoulder, hard. I tasted blood. I released my jaws, brought my hands up, and threw him off me. I found a sharp stick relevantly close to me, ran up to Tranker and sank in through his chest. "I told you. I told you you would pay." I whispered in his ear as his life drained away. _I must have a concussion with all those blows to the head. _A headache was forming and I found a rather large bump on my temple. I hurried back to Savanna and found Revlor stirring. I had no energy to fight him. I fell beside Savanna and continued to heal her neck. I was ready to pass out when Revlor got up. Neither I, or Savanna could fight him right now. I just laid there, waiting for my terrible fate.


	20. Chapter 19

Revlor stood there a moment, laughing at our weakness. I hated his laugh, he thinks he won. "I killed your friend." I said, exhausted. That shut him up. His mood turned angry. The second he took a step in our direction, an angry sminal flew into view. It was Kramor! My vision was a tad blurry, but she blew a flame at him, then bent down and placed us on her back. With a quick jerk, we were air born and flying away from of awful prison we almost died at. "Kramor! You saved us!" I squealed, extremely tired. My head pounded and my back felt on fire. Somehow, just being on Kramor, knowing I was safe, helped me regain some strength. Nothing was broken so I was good. My eye had stopped bleeding, but it was soon clear it would be a scar forever. A fraylor flew up from the trees. At first, I thought it was Revlor, coming for his final plan, but it appeared to be Joyl. Kramor noticed him and barred her teeth. "No, Kramor. He's on our side." I explained. She seemed shocked by this news and was weary as he pulled up beside us.

"I see you made it out?" He asked, glancing at our wounds. Savanna's 'X' cuts were almost healed, but they would have to wait. She already tried healing mine, but nothing happened. "Yeah, Savanna almost died and I killed Tranker." I told him. He seemed shocked about Savanna and didn't really care about Tranker. Happy if anything. "That's good. He was always rude, annoying and violent. I'm glad he's gone. Are you alright, Savanna?" He wondered. She nodded. "We would have died back there if it weren't for you. Thank you." I said, actually meaning it. Kramor rolled her eyes. "You too, Kramor!" I laughed. She changed her mood a bit. "It was my pleasure. You came _all _that way to save her, I figured it would be unfair for you to not return. You're a hero now."He smiled.

_A hero? _I smiled at the thought. Just what I wanted to be. My smile faded. "How'd you know I came to save her?" I wondered. He looked hesitant. "Oh, well you see, I would listen to your conversations at night. I wasn't til a few days ago you actually noticed me. Please forgive me, just your talk of home seemed fascinating. It sounds like you really like it there, and well, I hate it here. Everyone's so fowl and mean and angry all the time. I'm the only one not. Since everyone sees me talking to you now, I'll be punished upon return. So instead, I just won't go back. I'll go south. I hear it's nice there." He planned. "Oh, that's terrible; leaving your home!" Savanna gasped. She did not get him. "That'll be good, moving. You don't belong here anyways. You're too good for these creatures. You're smarter than them. I noticed they don't know about the berries. A change will be good. Otherwise you may not stay as you are with them." I cut Savanna off. He nodded. "Maybe someday our trails will cross again. Happy travels!" He called, flying off. "I'd like that! Thanks for everything!" I yelled standing up. He waved, then flapped away even faster.

"Tallia, you're standing." Savanna whispered. "Yes, I realize that. So?"  
>"You're flying too."<br>"I know that." Somehow, watching the boy who helped us escape his own kind fly away reminded me there's good things in life. Good people. You just got to take a risk to find the right ones. You don't belong with the wrong ones, you just got to get away. "I'm going to miss that kid." I signed, sitting back down. After Joyl disappeared from my sight, for perhaps the last time, I was tired again. Very tired. Within seconds, I was passed out again.


	21. Chapter 20

I never remembered having a better sleep. I was comfortable, free and able to move, instead of being tied to a tree. I had been gone for eleven days, been prisoner for eight. If anything, it made me stronger. But for Savanna, she was terrified. She was so tense, always looking over her shoulder. The only person she trusted in the world was me. Even if Kurt would have still been with her, she wouldn't have been able to trust him. That would probably tear their relationship apart anyways. All together, they just weren't meant to be, even if it seemed so perfect at the time. You have to step out of the picture to examine it better. I knew one thing though, life would never be the same again.

When Kramor first arrived in the meadow, me and Savanna were both laying down, asleep. Kramor's appearance was of nothing new, so no one turned a second eye. Finally, someone noticed our tails hanging off the sides and yelled. This caused a grande crowd to form. I was awoken by Carter pulled me off Kramor back and into his arms.

I opened my eyes to see Carter staring down at me worried. "Tallia, your eye." He began. I shook my head. "You don't even know how bad I used to be. That's nothing." I tried to calm him. Me and Savanna had been healing each other in our waking hours. All scars, cuts and bruises were vanished, except the lone, mysterious scar across my right eye. It wasn't actually on my eye, but it was a bit above my eyebrow, then down two inches or so, but it goes over my eyelid. He wasn't happy with this news. I shrugged it off."I brought Savanna back!" I gasped out. She was still asleep on my sminal's back. Her parents were approaching her. "Wait! Stop!" I hollered out to them. They turned and stared at me, confused. "You can't touch her. Not after what she's been through. You'll scare her half to death. She only trusts me. Let me wake her up." I explained, gesturing for Carter to set me down. I was still a bit weak so I wobbled walking over to Kramor. Carefully, I nudged her shoulder. "Savanna. We're home." I whispered in her ear.

She shuddered, half asleep, then jumped up quickly. Once she registered my face, she calmed down. "We're home. We made it." I smiled. Savanna took a weary glance at the large crowd gathered. They clapped. The missing girl who turned out to be stolen had returned home, with my help. I stared at her parents. They gave me a look that said "Can we see our daughter now?" I nodded and turned back to Savanna. "Your parents would like to see you." I explained and pointed to them. A smiled crossed her face as she slid down Kramor's scaly side. It surprised me how she ran straight into their arms. Maybe returning home would break her worried state. I walked back over to Carter and put my arm around his waist as he put his arm across my shoulder as we faced Savanna and her parents. We were alright. Still, i felt the need to apologize. "Listen, Carter. I'm sorry for-" My sentence was cut off by him leaning over and kissing me. It reminded me of how much I had missed him over my adventure. "You came back, that's all that matters." He whispered in my ear. I threw my arms around him and held him tight, never wanting to let go.

"I knew you would succeed." Came a voice moments later. I let go of Carter to see my mom, looking older than ever. _It's like they knew I was in trouble. _She caught sight of my eye and her smile faltered. She quickly covered it up. Tears in my eyes, I ran at her and hugged her. She smelled like home.

Over the next hour, my friends and colony came to speak to me. There were a lot of them, asking so many questions my headache returned. Sierra returned from training. She carefully approached me, afraid I was changed. She was practically asking permission to talk to me. I nodded and she walked up normally. "Nice scar, makes you look dangerous." She laughed. "I kind of like it. it marks what I did." I explained. "You rebelled and risked your life on a stupid, worried thought. But all in all, it was the best move you ever made." She smiled. I laughed. Savanna was hiding behind me. Almost scared of Savanna. "What's wrong? This is our friend, remember? Sierra?" I whispered. "Her strips. Purple." She said quietly, staring at Sierra. "It's her warrior strips. Like me and you. It has nothing to do with... Them." I explained. "You're sure?" I nodded. _It's like she forgot everything from here. _

Sierra was on her tippy toes, peering over my shoulder at Savanna with one eyebrow raised. I raised my shoulders. Savanna stepped out from behind me and faced Sierra, though she was tense. "Hey, what happened after I left, with uh, you-know-who?" I asked gesturing to Savanna. Sierra clued in. "He smartened up. Or at least around me." She described. "I'm not dumb, I know you're talking about Kurt. It's fine, I don't care. But I'm going to go talk to him." Savanna declared, marching off.

"She's different now." Sierra observed. "Yeah, well when you go through what she did, you're bound to act different." I explained. "You did. You're still the same." She pointed out. "Yes, but I knew what I was setting out to do. She was took during the night, forced away from home, beaten and questioned, all by herself. I arrived just in time to save her from the edge of insanity." I took a deep breath. "Plus she's not in training, remember? She's not prepared for that stuff." I stated. It suddenly occurred to me they also picked Savanna because of that, plus if they _did_ know me, they knew I was friends with her. They must have been watching us some time. "I supposed. So, why'd they take her anyways?" She questioned. "Information." I said simply, remembering the plan. "They have a plan! I have to talk to Murawl and Merfalis!" I yelled.

Just as I was about to run off, she grabbed my arm. "Wait. Watch this." She encouraged, pointing at Savanna and Kurt. She had just found him. Slowly, we started walking in their direction. His eyes almost popped out of his head. As he went to embrace her, she backed up and pushed his arms away. "Did you really think I was gonna take you back?" She yelled. "Babe, what are you talking about?" He wondered, acting clueless. "Excuse me? I know about you and that girl. Don't play stupid with me boy! We are _done! _Go rot in hell!" She shrieked, slapping him. Sierra giggled. "Yeah, she's got an aggressive side now." I laughed. Kurt held his face, shocked. Savanna turned and talked calmly away.


	22. Chapter 21

Luckily, Merfalis seemed to believe me about their plan. I ran to him after Savanna's little conversation with Kurt. His reply had been: "There's been another disappearance since you left. They vanished yesterday."  
>"Does Murawl know? Who was it?" I questioned. "Not yet, we must talk to him at once. And a younger boy, Zore. He was around twenty-five. There's been no signs of him since noon yesterday." Merfalis had informed me. Now, we were running alongside a few other military folk, going to consult with him.<p>

Quietly, we all climbed the tall maple tree towards the leaders branch. Murawl was lying eyes close in the shade, unmoving. Merfalis swallowed uneasily, glancing at the rest of his group. They had the same worried expressions. I locked onto Murawl with my vision. _He _was _old.. _Merfalis carefully nudged his shoulder. My heart pounded nosily, I wouldn't be surprised if they could hear it. After a few frightening moments, Murawl stirred. The military leader tapped his shoulder again, pulling him into consciousnesses.

Still in his half awake slumber, his gaze locked on me. "Oh, Tallia! You're back!" He giggled. I smiled uneasily, and nodded politely. "Murawl, we must speak with you. But I don't believe this is an appropriate location." Merfalis hinted. Murawl shook his head quickly, throwing off the sleep. "Ah, yes. Of course. Shall we?" He agreed, stretching across the large branch. I looked down, scanning the meadow while waiting for Murawl to get up. I saw Carter and Luther laughing, walking into the bush. Savanna was talking with her parents, just like old times. I wanted to know what she was thinking. It would take a while, but maybe just being home would crack her worried shell.

Movement on the branch brought back my attention. The group was descending. I quickly lept down the branches, catching up as our feet touched the soft soil. Surprisingly, we ended up in the daisy meadow. My guess was because it was so empty most of the time. "Ever since you left, we discouraged too much travel." Merfalis whispered beside me. I nodded as he walked past me.

Reaching the center of the meadow, we stood in a circle, Murawl and Merfalis side by side at the top. "You had some news?" Murawl started. Merfalis cleared him throat. "Uh, yes. We have reason to believe the defels are in danger. When Tallia was held prisoner there, she overheard their plan." He waited a moment. "Their plan was to kill us off." He finished. There were a few muffled gasps from the group. Murawl's eyes seemed to glow brighter. "You're sure about this?" He snapped at me. "Yes, sir." I said as clear as possible. His eyes darted to Merfalis. "The plan is to kidnap a defel each day, until out numbers are low enough to massacre us off." He informed. Murawl seemed appalled. "I've heard enough of this non-sense from that kid!" He declared, pointing at me. "I will not have it from a military leader, Merfalis!" He roared. Now it was Merfalis' turn to be angry.

"This is not non-sense! How would you explain two disappearances in such a short period of time? This is no kid, may I remind you. She's practically full-grown! Why else would they take them prisoners and beat them for information? Do not forget who's _kid _this is!" Merfalis snapped. Murawl took this in a moment. I looked at Merfalis, amazed. I had never seen anyone talk to Murawl like that. "Why though? We have done no wrong to these creatures." He quizzed. Merfalis didn't know this, and looked at me. "They're fraylors, from Grandoric. They were friends with the wherloos. I know that wasn't in my lifetime, but they were watching us, avoiding suspicion. They stole Savanna to get information. They were going to kill us, but we escaped." I explained quickly, not liking so many eyes on me. Murawl stroked his chin, unhappy.

"Well, what could we do about this?" He wondered, pacing outside the circle. "What if we stayed in the meadow and faught back?" Suggested an older warrior, I think his name was Sparl. He was very talented on a daragot. He had taught me some maneuvers once. They seemed to agree. I kept shaking my head. "There's hundred of them! They're only taking down our numbers to ensure their victory! We would be extinct!" I hollered. Their conversation stopped. "And what would you suggest we do?" Murawl hissed, angry with me for poking holes in his solution. I took a deep breath. "The only way to save us all, is to pack up and leave."


	23. Chapter 22

This recieved several gasps from the group. "Leave home? Where would we go?" They wondered. "Exactly. There is no place to go. If they're picking off random outcasts, we cannot leave. If we just stay in the meadow, they can't steal us one at a time. We will have better numbers to even the odds." Merfalis stated. I was horrified when Murawl nodded in agree. "But-" I began. "That is enough, _child!_" Murawl growled, throwing up his hands and returning to the circle._ I've seen just as much as you have, I am not a child. Even Merfalis said so._ I snapped back in my mind. I glanced at Merfalis, hurt. His face was stiff and professional. His eyes were so cold, it was clear he was with Murawl on this decision.

"It has become clear we will not be leaving the meadow." Murawl announced. "If anyone shall challenge my choice, you _will _be removed from this group." He hissed, staring at me. I kept my mouth closed firm. "We will not allow anyone to leave. We must give everyone lessons on the basics of fighting. When do you think they will arrive?" Murawl quizzed me. I cleared my throat, stepping forward. "They have wings. If they fly, it could be hours, maybe less. If on foot, a day or two, tops." I informed, stepping back in line. They seemed shocked by the news. "Hours." He muttered, stroking his chin. "Tallia, you know them best. What do you think they'll fight on? The ground, or the air?" Sparl questioned, wanting to know for how many daragots we'd need. "When I was there, they never flew. They were trying to keep that from me. But Savanna, the other girl held prisoner, was there with them on the journey there. She would know better than I." I answered.

They sent out two of the fastest runners not including me, to go get Savanna. They still had to pressure me for information. We covered everything from weak spots to magic powers. When Savanna arrived, she explained how they could only fly for about half an hour, before having to land. Their bodies were too heavy and their wings weren't strong enough. But they had left a day before we did, so she predicted hours til their arrival. After a debate over how many daragots needed, I jumped into the middle of the circle. "We don't have time! We must prepare the meadow!" I ordered. They seemingly agreed, and we raced back to the meadow, trying to beat time.

We called a meeting of the whole meadow, and explained the trouble. We were sorted into two groups, military and everyone else. Many stronger warriors not in the military, like me, were moved into their group. I stood between Sierra and Carter as Merfalis sped through the basics, more of a review than anything. After, he showed pressure points that may work on them. After, he called me to the front to describe them to everyone, so there would be no surprises. I described them as accurately as I could. I laid deep importance on their eyes and claws, since the eyes terrified me and made me think them blind, and the claws were poisonous. I was sent out the get the special leaves to draw out the poison. It took a while, but I tracked the light green leaves to the karminyurs pong, and grabbed as much as I could manage and raced back.

When all the training was finished, there was nothing else to do. They didn't want us practicing just in case we would be hurt, or tired after. My group was finished a long while before the other group, since they had so much more to learn. We were strictly ordered not to leave, and be prepared for anything, especially a fight.

I stood there a moment, holding Carter close. He didn't fully understand the fact that if they attacked, we wouldn't be alive tomorrow. I could feel his heart beat against mine. It felt as if the busy day I had came to a complete stop. It was only an hour or two past noon. They clearly wouldn't attack after the sun went down. Even if they knew we could see in the dark, they couldn't. "You don't know how much I've missed you." He whispered in my ear. "I was worried I wouldn't come back." I confessed. He giggled. "I had a feeling something was wrong. I was ready to go after you, until Kramor left. I knew something was wrong then, but I also know you're a strong warrior, Tallia. I knew you would come back with Savanna, too. When you yelled at me the other day, I realized just how determined a person could be. I knew no matter how long it would take, you would come home." He explained. "Yeah, sorry about that. And thanks. For believing in me." I held him tighter. "No need to be sorry, it's me who should be apologizing. I was angry with worry. I didn't want to lose you. I over-reacted. But I _do _understand your need to go find her. Your choice was anything but selfish. Noble, respectable, heroic." He smiled. _Heroic. _I smiled at this, and was dreading the moment I would have to let go.


	24. Chapter 23

Hours passed. Then more. There we no signs of them yet. I eventually let go of Carter and ventured off to talk to everyone else I needed to catch up with. It was like being on your deathbed, but no one really knew it. The only person who knew we wouldn't be alive much longer was Savanna. Savanna was busy in a deep conversation with Luther, so talking to her would have to wait. I went and talked to my mom, Sierra, Marla and I even yelled at Kurt some more, just to get into the battle mood. Merfalis came to talk to me more about fraylors. I explained how Revlor might be dead, so they'd have a new, unorganized leader. They had a few weak spots in their plan, but altogether the numbers would still kill us off. This was a hopeless battle.

I was walking around with Sierra when I heard the frightening sound of branches cracking. I stopped suddenly. Sierra kept walking and talking, caught up with her story. I glanced at the meadow. Everyone was at least ten meters from the forest. No one had heard it. My world was spinning out of control. "Tallia, you okay?" Wondered Sierra, finally turning around at my non-response. I barley heard her. I began hearing conversations all around me, scattered words. "Tallia?" Sierra tapped my shoulder. Since i was taller than most, I had no problem finding Savanna, who was staring at me, scared. _She knows they're here, too. _

Suddenly, I burst into a sprint at her. Since everyone avoided the forest, we were all crammed together and I had to shove people out of the way to get through. It was very time consuming. "Tallia, what are you doing?" Yelled Sierra behind me, standing on her tippy toes to see me push through the crowd. "Savanna, you heard it too?" I gasped, finally reaching her. She nodded and swallowed uneasily. "They're here." She whispered. "Will you be able to face them?" I worried. Even though she had gotten better, she was still in her shell. Seeing them would destroy the whole progress; fighting them would do untold damage. "I could put you on Kramor. You guys could fly away. She'd protect you. You could return in a few days. It would be done by then." I planned.

Savanna was shaking her head. "I'm not a coward. They deserve to be killed for what they've done to us. Facing them, it'll be bad, but I want a chance to kick _their_ ass this time." She looked into the distance. "We've beat them before, we can do it again." I promised. There were few more cracks, then silence. No one knew of their presence. I dragged Savanna over to Merfalis, who was talking with Murawl. "They're here." I explained. His sight automatically went to the treeline. "I see nothing." He was confused. "I heard branches cracking. They're loud in the forest. You'll see them soon." I guaranteed.

Savanna's hands suddenly grasped my arm tightly. Merfalis resumed his conversation. I glanced down to see her staring at the trees. I observed the treeline to find white spots everywhere. _Not spots, eyes, _I realized. The surrounded the meadow, hiding in the trees. "Hey, Merfalis. You can see their eyes now." I crossed my arms, nodding to the trees. When he noticed them, he let out his warning call. It was like a chirping sound. This got everyone's attention. We didn't want them to knew we knew they were here. Merfalis nodded to everyone and pointed his chin at the trees. Everyone saw the eyes and screamed. Hurried conversations broke out. The defels all nudged in closer, not wanting to be on the outside. "This is a plenty different reaction then the last attack." Merfalis noted to Murawl. "Well over a quarter of them have never had to worry about being attacked." Murawl reminded.

Children cried, people hugged. Out of no where, someone turned in a fast circle, hitting the surrounding people with the palm of his hands. The several defels were knocked unconscious. Surprisingly, he picked them all up and carried them out of the group. It was Kurt! He walked straight towards the treeline. Three fraylors stepped into the meadow, and into the sunlight. Two were regular colors, grey and purple, while the third was black. _Not black, burnt. _Burnt. "The black one, that's Revlor. Their leader. Kramor set him on fire before we left." I hissed to Merfalis, and slowly started to make me way towards them. The three had evil smiles. I was happy to see Tranker not here. They had not been able to save him. One less person to worry about.

Kurt dumped the defels in front of them. To my relief, I didn't know them. "Thank you, Kurt. You have been of very use as a spy." Revlor announced loudly. I was clear of the crowd now, and walking very fast towards them. Spy. _He's a spy! _Everything I remembered about him. all those memories, shattered in that moment. _I'll kill you. _Tears threatened in my eyes. _You set this up. Savanna would be find if it weren't for you. Did you even love her at all? _

Revlor looked at me. Clearly remembering me, he laughed at my angered expression. The three monsters picked up the defels, turned and strolled back into the darkness of the trees. I was meters away now. Kurt didn't even look at me. I jumped at him, only to be deflected and knocked on my back somehow. Like he was _untouchable_. Kurt walked towards the bush. I was too weak to get up. Revlor reappeared from the shadows and readied his hand to hit me. He glanced behind me and backed away. "I like your burn marks." I hissed at him. He growled, disappearing once again.

There were hands under my armpits, pulling me away from the forest. I glanced up to see Sierra and Carter pulling me, and Savanna and Mom walking alongside them. Savanna was flaming with rage, my guess was because of Kurt. Mom looked pale, very pale. "You can stop dragging me now." I laughed moments later. Sierra let go and Carter pulled me to my feet. I threw my arms around him once more. "You okay?" He wondered. "Mm-hmm." I mumbled into his neck. "It was like he was untouchable." I described. "It's okay, he's gone now." Carter whispered, moving his hands up and down my back. I let go of him and we all re-joined the crowd. This time, everyone made a path towards Murawl so I wouldn't have to shove though again. "They'll attack anytime, but for now they've left. They'll be back soon. You ready to leave the meadow yet?" I instructed.


	25. Chapter 24

Another meeting was called. At first, everyone wanted to stay and fight, but after my speech about certain death, a clump of them changed their minds. Mainly because they were so scared of those monsters. Majority were still jumpy, and were surprised at my calmness. They figured it was my training, but honestly, it was since I was so used to them. Sure, seeing them sent chills down my spine, but what was the point of showing weakness? Savanna wasn't left scarred from the encounter, for now anyways. All she did was rage about how much of a traitor Kurt was. "At least i got to yell at him. If you wouldn't have told me about his actions here, I would still love him, but since you did, I already prepared myself for good bye." She had told me. It was clear Kurt was never coming back, but one question remained. Would he fight against us?

All in all, we decided to leave the meadow. It was heart-breaking for all, this is our home! But sometimes, you just gotta make sacrifices for the better of the group. We could only spare fifteen minutes to say good bye to our beloved home, then we would be off, never to return again. A few asked if we could return in time. "If they waited eighteen years to make an attack out of hatred, they will wait for our return, and demolish us when we do," came Murawl's response. His voice was raw, instead of it's usual strong. He would miss home the most. He had been leader so long, he was almost in tears that he would have to leave where it all began. He hated making tough decisions, and moving the whole colony would be hell for him. Him and Merfalis went off to make a plan to where we'll move to. That would be one of the trickiest things, with a lot of requirements. No other species inhabited there, home-like, peaceful, small number of enemies, water source near by and more.

"We're really leaving?" Savanna gasped beside me, watery eyes. "Yeah, but we won't have to deal with the fraylors anymore," I cheerfully reminded her. She shook her head, tears fell. "But this is our home!" She cried. I couldn't tell if she was crying out of leaving the meadow or if the past few weeks had finally caught up to her. She needed to cry though, it'll help dissolve her shell. Crying always helps. When you've been strong for so long, you need to let it all out to build yourself up again. Another thought occurred to me, _if being home would work away at her shell, what would leaving do to it? Would it start everything over again, or would she be healed altogether? Is she healed enough already? _

Savanna collapsed onto my shoulder and I put my arms comfortingly around her. After a few moments, she went silent and pulled herself back up. "You okay?" I asked, concerned. She nodded miserably. "It's going to be hard for everyone." I reminded. Savanna nodded again, and disappeared back into the crowd.

Sierra shoved her way over to me. "Those things kept you captive?" She shrieked hysterically, which was new for her. She mainly tried to act tough. "Yup. Eight days with those things watching you, questioning you, hitting you.." I described. She shuttered. "Gotta hand it to you kid, you're a lot braver than you lead yourself up to be," Sierra complimented. "Uh, thanks," I laughed, partially offended by the 'lead yourself up to be' part. "What happened to the old one?" She wondered. "Kramor burnt him for coming to kill me and Savanna. He's lucky to be alive. I killed the other one there, the guard. He pissed me off, always enforcing rules and hitting me. You try being tied to a tree, unable to fight back. It's frustrating!" I informed. "With my temper, I wouldn't have lasted there," she figured. "No, you wouldn't have," I confirmed.

There was an hour or so before dark. They called me up. I left Sierra behind and approached the tired leaders. "Do you think they'll attack tonight?" Merfalis wondered. "That's unlikely. I don't think they know we have night vision, but they can't see in the dark. They'll wait til morning if they're smart," I explained. "We sent out a scout to see their location. They're hiding out about halfway here and the grosms clearing, in the vines as cover. We believe they're settling down for the night," Merfalis explained. I nodded. "We would set out now, but everyone is exhausted and we wouldn't make it far," Murawl added. I considered this a moment. I needed rest too. "They can see the moment the sun's up. If we rest now, we can leave a couple hours before sunlight. In case they're able to track us, we should disperse on our daragots. Ones that don't could ride with someone who does?" I suggested. "Very well," Murawl agreed, dismissing me. Shortly after, he announced to everyone my plan, and told them to get to sleep immediately.

As I laid down beside my mom and Savanna, who refused to leave my side, I looked at the familiar stars. A smile crossed my face, same with savanna. For this was the first night in almost two weeks we were watching the stars, trying to fall asleep in our home. This was the one thing Savanna wanted to do when we were kept captive. There was no place I'd rather be. It almost made everything that happened better, just in that moment. _Too bad we're leaving tomorrow. _


	26. Chapter 25

It was still dark when I was awoken. It felt as if I had only blinked, I was so tired. My whole body was stuff and sore. I groaned loudly and hauled myself to my feet. I lost my balance and Carter caught me. "Thanks," I muttered drowsily. There was around three hours til sunrise. I rubbed my eyes as I walked into the group assembled in from of the Tall Maple Tree. "There is not much time!" Murawl called out. "We have set out the next thirty minutes to get breakfast. Fraylors could be anywhere, so this is highly dangerous. Go out in packs of ten or more. After you are done, call your daragot and ready yourself to depart!" He instructed.

After everyone was fed and ready, we all said our final goodbyes to the meadow. I visited Estil's grave one last time before we left. I felt closer to him that way. There was a rock at the top of his grave, marking his place. They only did this to important defels. The rest got buried farther down, closer together. Some even in the forest or desired places. With tears in my eyes, I leaned down next to the rock and whispered "Sorry for failing." The wind blew through my fur. I got up and prepared to leave.

There was a dreary, cold mood in the air. We all got on our daragots, me on my sminal, and with a heart-wrecking leap, we were airborne, flying away from the only place we had to call home in the world. Some defels were paired up since the shortage of daragots. Luckily, since I was on a sminal, I was by myself. They didn't know how Kramor would react to a stranger on her. She didn't really like people; only a few.

It was still dark, there wasn't even pink near the horizon. I was closer to the front, but was in the middle. Murawl lead and Merfalis tailed close behind, often pulling up to discus things. We were heading east, since we knew the landscape better there, plus it was the opposite way of the fraylors. I was scared for the sun to come up, because when it did, the fraylors would set out to kill us. When they see we aren't there, they'll come after us. _What if they follow us to our new home? We'll always be on the run! _I was so tired and scared, I decided to fall asleep on Kramor's scaly back. It was warm and comfortable so I dozed off easy, figuring Kramor could follow them without problems.

The sun was well clear of the horizon when I woke up. It was a few hours til noon. This struck more fear into my heart. With a glance down, I noted we were still in Draytor, would be for a while. The daragots shortened the trip by a lot though. "You're finally up," Carter laughed beside me. I jumped a bit. "How long have you been there?" I wondered, finally rid of the drowsiness. "A while," he said smugly. "Yeah, I'm up. Hey, I was tired. First decent nights sleep in weeks and I had to get up early," I complained. "Well it was a good time to sleep; nothing happened. Very annoying first thing in the morning," he laughed. "I didn't hear anything, slept like a rock," I mocked, stretching.

Hours passed. The forest all looked the same. Trees, clearings and rivers. Some trees old, some young, tall or very bright. One that was located on a hill was twisted, grey and massive, it was one of the coolest things I've seen all day. I flew beside many different people. Some asked me questions of my journey. It was in that moment when I realized how boring life in the meadow was. Nothing _ever_ happened. _Maybe it was time for a change. _Majority of us never ventured five minutes away, so this was all new to them. This change would be good, I could feel it.

"I'm very happy we're leaving. I didn't want you fighting those _barbarians_," said Mom, pulling up beside me, We were on the right flank of the group now, and the rest of the colony was out of hearing distance. "I would have been fine, Mom. I survived over a week with them," I reminded. "I wouldn't risk it anyways. I'm glad we're running," she said, furious. I couldn't tell if she was mad at me or them. I didn't say anything. Mom signed. "If I knew it was them who took Savanna, I wouldn't have let you go. If I knew they were going to attack us sooner, I would have taken you and ran," she explained. "I needed to find her," I hissed, hurt. "I wouldn't have allowed it," she snapped at me, eyes blazing. "Whatever, it's over and done with now," I muttered. It was silent a moment. "If they follow us, even if you think they are, you must run away from the group. You had a feeling about Savanna and the plan, you've clearly got a gift. Use it," she instructed. I sat taller. "I'm not running! I _will_ stay and I _will_ fight!" I growled. "I forbid it! You will do no such thing."  
>"And why not? I know about them more than anyone else here. Without my help we'll be extinct!" I informed. Mom was silent. "Why not?" I repeated loudly. "Because they're the reason your father's dead! Those creatures killed your father!" She yelled, streaking ahead.<p>

I sat there, too shocked to speak. I watched Mom disappear into the group. _Those creatures killed your father. Killed your father. _Those words bounced around in my head. Fraylors killed Estil? Kramor flew on, pretending not to hear. She's bad at pretending. When she heard her wing strokes had hesitated. Estil meant everything to her. He was the reason she was here now. Fraylors killed Estil. Just like they were going to murder me. Now, we were running from them. _Why are we running? We should be killing them, slaughtering them off! _Tranker's words before I killed him came rushing back to me. _You're weak, just like your father. Otherwise he'd still be alive. _No actually, he'd still be alive if it weren't for you freaks! _My father was not weak,_ I repeated. _He did more than you ever did! You're the weak one, I killed you._

I still couldn't believe it. Fraylors killed Estil. After all this time assuming, it seemed unbelievable I knew those creatures well. And Kurt was working with them! If I thought cheating on Savanna was bad, this was pure evil. He deserves to be killed. If I ever cross paths with him again, I will kill him. A low growl escaped Kramor's mouth. "The feeling's mutual girl," I muttered, patting her side. We were still away from the group, so they didn't see me raging. It was a mix of emotions, sadness, anger, hatred, and a bit of shock and relief, that now I finally knew the beasts who killed my father.

If anyone were to come and talk to me now, I would probably yell that them until they left. Or throw a punch or two. I really didn't want to be around people right now. Luckily, they all seemed brain dead and zoned out on this side of the group, so I was in the clear.

Why would they do this? Why would they kill an innocent person? Another thought hit me. _He wasn't innocent. He killed their friends. They were probably full of wanting revenge and hate, just like me now. Those are two of the most hardest to control, most impulsive emotions. They probably feared he was too powerful, and a major threat. _These were good reasons, but did it really have to be my father? If they would have gotten the wrong defel, he'd be here today. Tears threatened to fall from my eyes. He would have came up with a plan to save us all, unlike running away, my plan. He would have made it so we would be able to fight back! We'd still be at home, as a happy family. Maybe I'd even have a brother or sister to compete against.

The tears started to fall. I let them. It takes more effort to put yourself back together than it does to fall apart. But everyone needs to fall apart sometime, only to rebuild yourself into the best person you can be. My father would still be alive today, if it weren't for those crazy beasts. Everything in my life would be perfect, but there always had to be something that comes along and ruins it. Life can never be perfect, or fair. But one simple little thing like that would make a world of difference. The funny thing is, everyone thinks I'm perfectly happen. Estil being gone had been quietly eating away at my thoughts, and I finally let it out. _At least no one's here to see this. _A low, ugly moan escaped my throat. I am not a pretty crier. "Why Kramor?" I gasped. She shook her head miserably. She was the one person who understood me in the world at this moment.

I don't know how long I cried for, hours or minutes. I do know, afterwards I was incredibly tired. There was an hour or two until sundown, and I was already ready for bed. When we took another break, we all settled down for bed. We couldn't fly and sleep, our daragots needed rest too. Plus, we had made awesome time. We were very close to the east border of Draytor. I settled down beside Carter, making sure to stay clear of my mom. We weren't really on the best of terms since our fight. She was probably giving me time to get used to .. well, let's not go there. The familiar scent of him and his heat reminded me of home. From a distance where the daragots slept, I saw Kramor looking sadly at the mated daragots and defels, as if she was jealous. But there were no other sminals, so she'd have to remain alone, or mate with a daragot. That would introduce an entirely new creature to Transor.

That night I dreamt of Kurt. I ran into him while running to the meadow on a regular day while we still lived there. I lept at him, taking him down. No force field this time, it was nice. We rolled a few feet, I landed on top. I grasped his neck in rage. He put his hands up defensively. "I don't care what you have to say!" I growled at him. "I did it for Savanna!" He chocked out. I squinted my eyes, then released my grip a tad. "I'm listening," I hissed angrily. "They jumped me once, said I had to be a spy. They threatened to kill Savanna," he pleaded. "I guess I didn't bring them enough information. They took her anyways," he cried. I laughed, regaining my grip. "Nice story. You wouldn't have cheated on her if you did it for her. You wouldn't have gave them those defels, you would have went after her if you did it for her. You would have known it was them at the first sign. You didn't even act different!" I hollered. "Please believe me. For old times sake?" He squeaked, running low on oxygen. "Old times sake are full of lies and long gone! We were never friends. Those flames of friendship we once had are gone! _Shattered," _I roared as his heart beat it's last beat.

I awoke with a start. The moon was bright in the almost foreign sky. Carter snored lightly beside me. _Was that true? Did he do it for her? _No way, not possible. Kurt is still hated, still a traitor. Always will be.


	27. Chapter 26

Once the sun was up, we were all woken up and told to prepare to leave. We were to walk a bit first, then hunt around from breakfast. There was no way of telling if the fraylors were coming after us. We were walking today, giving the daragots a break. They sent Sparl out to fly back a bit to see is they were following us. He was to return by lunch at the latest. They sent him because he was the best flyer in the group.

It took a while to get everyone up, but finally we were on our way. Some of the daragots chose to follow behind, some flew off and others stayed put. Kramor flew off back towards the meadow and I desperately hoped she wasn't planning to fight them.

Walking was harder than flying, but there was more to see on the ground. The forest was alive with all sorts of bugs animals. The leaves were bright green, reaching towards the sky, flapping in the light breeze. The dark shadows replaced by sunlight and warmth. The small trail ahead winding slightly. Birds chirped. Dead leaves crunched under my feet. Transor was really quite beautiful. I glanced around at my awed group of defels. Almost everyone's necks were craned upwards, looking at the vibrant leaving dancing in the wind. _This is right. We needed a change. _

I looked at Carter and he glanced back excitedly. I could see the whole world reflected in his glowing yellow eyes. For the first time in a long time, I seen my reflection. The sight of the mysterious scar was one I wouldn't get used to. Luckily, I had seen my face a total of around four times in my life, so I wouldn't have to get used to it. But as for everyone around me, they were out of luck.

We were walking fairly slowly. After flying all day, this seemed to take eons. _Where are we even going? _I peered on my tippy toes at the crowd. To my surprise, Savanna and Luther were walking together. Luther said something and Savanna laughed. She seemed a lot like her old self. _Could he break her shell? _I squinted at the front of the group. Murawl and Merfalis were talking. It seemed hush-hush since they were standing close together, leaned in. I sank back down and continued walked beside Carter. "Where do you think we'll end up?" I wondered, staring ahead. He rubbed his mouth. "Hmm, I'm not sure. I'm guessing a large hill or something? I doubt it'll be another field," he answered. "You?" I shrugged. "Haven't got a clue. Hey! You know what'd be cool?" I asked, pausing for a second. "If we ended up on an island!" I answered for him. He laughed, and raised a questioning eyebrow. "Well I'm not saying we will. I don't think so either, but still, you gotta admit that would be cool," I giggled. "Besides the swim part yes," he replied, "most of us hate water, if you haven't forgotten," he pointed out.

It was at this moment I realized me and Carter had traveled off course, caught in our conversation. He didn't seem to notice it yet. We were on a little trail coming from the main one. _Ops. _I stopped. "What?" he questioned, turning around. I spread my arms gesturing to our surroundings. He tilted his head and pressed his eyebrows together, not cluing in. I signed and his mouth formed an 'o' shape. He finally clued in. "We're not on the trail anymore." I nodded. "What now?" he asked, pulling me in close, raising his eyebrows suggestively as a joke. I laughed and shoved him away. "We get back on the right path," I instructed.

I shushed him and listened around. I could hear our colony a little up to the left. "This trail probably reconnects somewhere. There's a left turn up way ahead, we'll catch em there," I planned.

We continued walking, but at a faster pace. "What were you and your mom yelling about yesterday?" He asked suddenly. "Huh?" I glanced at him. "I heard you guys yelling yesterday. What about?" Carter wondered. "Oh.." I looked down. "Well, uh. She was saying how she wouldn't have let me go if she would have known it was them and she was glad we were running," I informed, swallowing hard. "So of course you argued back," he laughed. I gave him a look. "Sorry," he quit laughing. "Is that all?" he wondered. "No.." I paused. After a moment of silence he asked "Well?" I didn't feel like responding. I had kept it pushed far out of my thoughts and Carter ripped them back, not letting me pretend it didn't burn inside. He was getting impatient. I took a few shaky breaths in then signed. "Those creatures? They uh, they killed Estil," I squeaked his name. I looked down, eyes closed. I was not having this conversation.

"Seriously?" he freaked out. I nodded. "Oh," he said, mentally slapping himself in the face. "That's crazy! We should have faught them!" he rambled on. I raised my head and grabbed his shoulders, cutting him off. "We're not talking about this," I growled, looking into his eyes. He must have seen emotion in mine, because he quieted up.

"Have you noticed how boring life in the meadow was?" I began. He thought about it a moment. "Yeah, really. It's all the same," he replied. We were almost at the corner. "If you think about it, we kind of needed to move. Majority of those people," I said, gesturing to the hidden colony, "have never been very far from the meadow," I pointed out. "I guess you're right," he agreed. We turned left with the trail and found our colony just passing it. We re-joined the group in almost the same spot we were in before, unnoticed.

I quickly glanced around the group. Many were exhausted, tired and sad. Luther and Savanna were _still _walking together. The conversation dropped off with me and Carter and we just trudged beside one another. The sun had disappeared behind the clouds and the atmosphere had turned gloomy. The shadows re-appeared and the trees began to seem older, more worn down. Carter hung his head, unnoticing the world around him. I cast my sight to the sky. The green leaves seemed to have turned dull without the gleaming sun. This part of the world didn't seem very hospitable, and I couldn't help but hope we wouldn't settle down here.


	28. Chapter 27

I was practically asleep when Murawl called a break. Even walking gets tiring. I was tempted to nap, but my stomach wouldn't stop growling so I scurried around for some food. After I filled my belly, I picked a nice spot on a branch and drifted off. The ground was too crowded, I'd most likely get stepped on.

I awoke tired from a dreamless sleep. Over the past few hours, the pace had sped a bit, but now it was very slow. Most figured it was so we wouldn't get as tired, or so we wouldn't miss anything. They assigned troops to the back of the group, in case of an attack. We were in unexplored land. Others had been through here, just not our group. We set out with a few hours til we'd be stopping for the night. It didn't seem as if they were following us, whcih was always a good sign. Still, no one was ready to take that chance, so we marched on.

We had to be close to the border now, but even as the colony grew more eager, Murawl kept a slow pace. I'd like to believe the rest of the colony's ideas about our pace, but i knew the stone-cold truth. It wasn't to not miss anything. I had seen it in Merfalis' eyes a few days back. He knew the same thing I did. Murawl was getting too old, he would die soon. Better the colony not know, it would cause more grief and panic. It wouldn't end well. So, I did something out of character for me. I kept my mouth shut.

It was almost dark now, Murawl called a stop for the night, even though we had only been walking for a little over an hour. Reluctantly, I climbed into a tree again. I was accompanied by Sierra and Savanna, who refused to sleep away from me. Glancing through the leaves, I saw Carter walking away with Luther. I picked a rather flimsy branch, but I wanted to be high away from the gloomy ground. The dying rays of sunlight floated through the leaves, reminding me of all the times I had watched the sunset from a tree, either with Carter or hiding from someone. It was like being at home.

Except for Savanna and Sierra wouldn't stop complaining to me while I was in my moment. I was hardly listening when they said how their feet and legs hurt and how boring walking gets and how annoying kids are. I hardly heard myself keep saying "oh" and "that sucks" repeatedly. Sierra snapped her fingers by my ear, scaring the bejibeze outta me. I glared at her for ruining my moment. "You're a million miles away," she stated. "Pfft, I wish!" I exclaimed, then turned to face the other way, wanting to sleep. "Oh, I see how it is!" Sierra began, "we're not good enough for you!" She giggled from four branches below me. Savanna was on the branch beside hers, a little above. I grunted in response as my eyes fluttered closed. Sierra and Savanna dis-attached me from their conversation and began to chatter quietly about our new home, the meadow and the fraylors. Savanna kept bringing up Luther like we didn't know him. That's when I fell asleep, wondering what the future would hold.

I woke to Merfalis hollering from the ground that it was time to wake up. Savanna, never really a morning person, groaned from beneath me. She was sounding more like herself. _Ever since she started walking with Luther, _I realized. I hauled myself up and slid down the tree like a fire pole. I learned after that was not a good idea. My hands now were covered in slivers.

After a quick stop for breakfast, we assembled fairly quickly. Carter was having some secret 'bro talk', it appeared, so today I would be walking alongside Savanna. My sore muscles ached as we started out. I was not used to walking so much, but this wasn't as bad as the running for days on end after Savanna. Glancing up, I saw that Murawl now had a walking stick. Looking closer, I saw it was just a plain old branch found at random, but sturdy enough to help support the old defel. The conversation between me and Savanna died quickly, as we were both in a non-talking mood. Plus there wasn't much to talk about. The fraylors was a sensitive topic I don't think shes ready for, so there's nothing that doesn't involve that. _Hey remember this time in the meadow? Yeah, the meadow, that place we can't go back to because we'll be slaughtered by th_e fraylors. _The weathers great. Good since we don't have anywhere else to go cause your captors may be chasing us. What do you think our new home will be? Same as the last one before the fraylors tried to kill us. _There was practically nothing to talk about, so instead we walked on silently as I ripped out the final slivers.

Every now and then Murawl would cough. Not an 'oh I might be sick' cough, it was a hacking, hurtful cough that scared people. I figured Savanna knew he was dying too. She had gotten so much wiser after being a captive. It does a lot to a person. There was no use discussing Murawl's predicament, it would just upset us both. Plus if someone were to over hear, there would be a panic. No need for that, we had been going good without.

A while later, Murawl called yet another stop. Only this one was to announce some news. "Please everyone sit. Have a rest. I've got some news for us all," Murawl hollered, sounding wiped, but also with a hint of renewal. Everyone sat in a cluttered group, signing with relied on their tired muscles. Murawl must have wanted rest too, but instead he leapt up onto a stump and faced us with enthusiasm. The defels buzzed with wonder. _What could it be? Found a home?_ I wish_. __The fraylors are coming after us? _You wouldn't be so happy about that. _They aren't coming after us? _How can you be so sure? The news took me by surprise. "We are not in Draytor anymore," he boomed in his leaderly voice. "We are now in Traylay!" he waited a few moments for this to sink in. "Even though we cannot be certain that the fraylors have stopped their possible pursuit, we can now start looking for a suitable home for us!" Cheers rose from the crowd. "Traylay is a bigger territory than Draytor, so it will take longer to cross. Now, let's have a quick rest and be on our way!" he instructed, sitting on the stump.

"Why couldn't we be flying this whole time?" grumbled Sierra from behind. "We'd probably miss the border if we did," I pointed out. Sierra rolled her eyes and rested back against a tree. Savanna suppressed her giggles. Moments later, we started moving again. There was a happy, excited buzz in the air. Minutes into the next walk, Merfalis appeared beside Sierra, who was to my left. "I need to speak with you," he whispered, "in private." Sierra glanced at me, confused. I shrugged. "Okay," she agreed and followed him to the front of the group.

"I wonder what it's about," I mumbled. "Me too. Should we go eavesdrop?" She suggested. The idea was appealing, but I didn't want them to get mad at us. "Nah, Sierra will probably tell us later," I pointed out. "I guess," Savanna muttered, disappointed.

We trudged along beside each other in silence for a good two hours or so. Carter and Luther returned from their bro talk and they stood between me and Savanna. "Where's Sierra?" Carter wondered, coming up on my right and taking my hand. I shrugged. "Merfalis called her up to the front the speak with her a few hours ago, hasn't returned," I explained. As if on cue, Sierra appeared before us, looking cool as a breeze. "Oh, hey Sierra," said Savanna, surprised. "Hi," she greeted walking backwards in front of us, facing us all. "So? How'd it go?"I questioned. "It was fine," she yawned, acting bored. "Keeping us in suspense I see," I shit at her. This cracked a smile. "Well I was trying," she laughed. This broke down her act. "I got offered a spot in the military!" She squealed.

"What?" We all shouted, in shock, our jaws dropped at various levels. I, personally was mind blown. "Yeah!" Sierra squealed again. This is Sierra we're talking about. She doesn't squeal. "But you're not 18," Carter stammered, stating the question on everyone's minds. "Well, that's the thing," she began, lowering her voice, "since we're in a different territory now, they need all the help we can get. So they're asking younger people that are skilled at fighting and stuff," she explained. "That's fantastic!" said Luther, giving her a high five. I was surprised to say the least. _Why didn't they ask me? _"Looks like all that training paid off," Carter smiled. Sierra nodded, her gaze turning to me. Of course she wanted to know what I thought of it all. "Tallia?" I looked at her. "Congrats man, you deserved it," I let go of Carter and wrapped her in a hug. I stepped back and took Carter's hand again. "You know what the awesomest part is?" She asked, pausing a moment. I didn't. _What now? _"I finally, _finally _beat you at something," she pointed out. This enraged me for some reason. She was rubbing this in my face. Wow. "Must be the first time," I shot back, a hint of anger in my voice. She was smart enough to detect it and changed the subject. "I'm sure they'll ask you too! But I gotta go find my parents! See ya guys later!" She waved, disappearing into the crowd. _Probably doesn't want me raining on her parade. _

"Wow," Carter muttered. "I'm surprised they asked her instead of you," Savanna put out. I shrugged. "Must be the training everyday; shows she has the heart for it," I guessed. "Yeah, but you have heart too. Coming after me, that took more than heart," Savanna smiled. I was surprised she even brought that up. "Plus, no offense to her but you're stronger, faster and better than her," Carter nudged. "I bet you'll get asked," Luther suggested. "Yeah, maybe," I replied half-heartily.


	29. Chapter 28

As unlikely as it seemed, Murawl was even slower the next day. You could see concern in some members of the colonies eyes, but you could tell they didn't fully grip the situation. Our pace was so slow, that the fraylors, if they were even chasing us, would catch up easily. Merfalis knew this. By lunch, our military leader now led the colony, after a brief talk with Murawl. He wasn't the leader, just stood at the front and directed where to go. I observed the group. Everyone was exhausted, excited and worried. I met Mom's eyes and quickly glanced away. We hadn't talked since she told me about the fraylors. I wasn't sure if we were okay. Sure, I was mad at her and yelled, but it's not like that's a new thing for us. I wasn't sure why we wouldn't be alright, I get her motives, but I still would have went anyways. _Who cares? It's in the past, let it go, _cued a voice in my head. Very good point.

Merfalis sped up the pace by a lot. It felt good but bad on my muscles. There was no way Murawl could keep up with this. After an hour or so, he called down his daragot and sat on her as she walked beside the group. _If only we could all do that. _Merfalis had his little was counsel up near the front with him, discussing things while he walked. Some of those defels were around Murawl's age, but could still take the pace. If Merfalis had his way, we'd all be running. But only the military and a few others could take that. Speaking of military, Sierra was located near the back of the group, keeping guard with a few others. They had much to tell her, so what better time than now?

I wasn't really walking with anyone today, just floating from group to group. People still asked me questions about how or why I went to save Savanna. If I wouldn't have found her, I would have help so dumb since I had believed so badly that I could.

I glanced up to see Savanna and Luther walking together again. _Will they ever get bored with each other? _That seemed unlikely. She was laughing and he was smiling and it was just plain cute. Luther is good for her, just what she needs to help get over everything that happened. I was genuinely surprised that she didn't turn out damaged from those experiences, especially since she was so in love with Kurt.

My mom's voice brings me back from my daze. I was about to reply, when I realized she wasn't talking to me. She was a few yards up, speaking with Marla. "Do you remember Gin?" she wondered, eyes sparkling.  
>"Gin?" asked Marla, confused.<br>Mom nodded. Marla's eyes darted back and forth on the ground, thinking.  
>"Oh, Gin! Yeah, I remember her, why?"<br>"No reason. Haven't thought of her in a while. What do you think it would be like if she were still here?"  
>"Hmm, I never thought of that," Marla began. "She probably would have had a kid. I bet Tallia would have acted like an older sister to her," Marla figured.<br>Mom laughed. "Tallia would be a great big sister," she agreed.  
>"Yeah, well you seen what she did for Savanna, and she's just a friend. I couldn't imagine what she'd do for family, especially a younger relative." <em>Me neither.<em> Mom nodded. _Time to break up this tea party._

"Who's Gin?" I asked, casually strolling between the two. They practically jumped out of their skin.  
>"How much did you hear?" Marla asked.<br>"A few words. Who's Gin?" I repeated.  
>My mom cleared her throat. "S-she was our childhood friend," she stuttered.<br>"I wouldn't say childhood since she was around in our twenties," Marla pointed out.  
>Mom shot daggers with her eyes at her friend. "She died when you were four, from a disease," Mom informed. We weren't on the best page and this was a horrible topic for our first conversation.<br>Why didn't you bring her up before?" I asked, pushing her buttons. Marla remained clueless. She had always liked me.  
>"Now, now. I'm sure your mother forgot. I hadn't thought of Gin in years, as I'm sure the same goes for your mom." The daggers stopped, she softened up a bit. Would we ever be the same again?<p> 


End file.
